Akatsuki Fairy Tales
by keikopanda102
Summary: A collection of AU romance tales with the different Akatsuki pairings! The first story is like Beauty and the Beast and includes all characters. They get more specific after that, with mainly one pairing stories. If you like Akatsuki, you'll like this!
1. Story 1: Chapter 1

**Akatsuki Fairy Tales**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Akatsuki, or Naruto, or anything that may resemble Disney movie plots.**

**First Story: The Beauties and Their Beasts**

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Once upon a time there was a small village on the outskirts of a creepy forrest. The village was well known throughout the kingdom because it produced very beautiful people. Not just women, but men too. In particular there was the Akatsuki family, made up of three brothers and a sister.

The sister was Konan, and she was famous for her lovely blue hair and the piercing below her bottom lip. She took care of the family and was the eldest of the siblings.

The second eldest was the first brother, Hidan. He was known for his smart mouth and rude behavior, but no one could deny he was sexy in an exotic sort of way with his pale hair and pink eyes. The quietest member of their family was Itachi, the middle son. Everyone in the village admired- and feared -his penetrating black gaze and stoic silence. He was probably the smartest of the siblings, but he never showed it, preferring to keep to the shadows and his head in books.

The final brother, only 19 years of age, was the nut-job artist Deidara. He was famous amongst the villagers for looking more like a young girl than most of the biological girls, and also for his destructive hobby. Wherever he went, explosions always seemed to follow. His "art" was constantly causing trouble for the family, but no one really complained once Deidara flashed his pretty blue eyes at them.

Together, the Akatsuki family lived separately from the rest of the village. They never worried about marriage or dating even thought the rest of the village, and even the kingdom, was always happy to supply suitors. Men came from all over with the purpose of asking for Konan's hand, some even wished to go after the other siblings, even if they were men. There was always one small problem though...

Whenever a suitor came in town to preposition them, they lost their courage with just one glance at the family. They were too much for most men to comprehend, and then, even if one actually got up the nerve to speak to them, he could never bring himself to actually ask one of them out.

This didn't bother the boys much, they'd never had minds for romance and were always too busy picking fights, reading books, or "creating art." Only Konan worried about their futures and her own loneliness. None of them had jobs, and they were living off their dead father's savings, but she knew those wouldn't last forever. If only one person could come along with enough bravery to save her and her family from this provincial town!

What she didn't know was that just then, there were two strange creatures searching high and low for four beautiful people to fulfill their master's wishes...

* * *

"Come, Tobi, we must move on to the next village. There is no one worthy here."

And awkwardly tall man wearing a spiral orange mask look around at his companion sadly.

"Awww Zetsu! One more day here, please? Tobi is a good boy! They have amazing dango in this town!"

"No!" barked a voice both similar and different from the first. "We need to move on. The Master's are getting impatient."

He turned his face to the side to reveal that have of him was black and the other half was white. His voice returned to normal as he added under his breath,

"Especially Masters Kakuzu and Sasori. Those two really are a pain in my-"

"Zetsu!" came a growl from within the multicolored man's traveling cloak. With a roll of his mismatched golden eyes he reached inside a pocket and drew out an ornate mirror. When he stared into it, instead of reflecting his face, a different face glared back. It was tan, with two long scars stretching out from the sides of his mouth.

"Master Kakuzu," Zetsu muttered through gritted teeth. "What can I do for your highness _now_?"

"How is the search coming? Have you found them yet?"

Zetsu's grin faded and he replied in an annoyed voice as if he had been asked this same question many times before. With an added grimace he replied sarcastically,

"No, Master, I have not yet found a woman of exquisite beauty who can stand to put up with your foul moods and violent temper. Nor, it seems, is there an equally attractive woman who cares to listen to Master Sasori ramble on about his frightfully boring "art" for a million years. Neither is there a female who wouldn't mind the smell of fish that Master Kisame always gives off, or another who would dedicate her life to Master Nagato, as is the criteria for all four of you. Though, I am quite sure, Master, that we will find them any day now, so no worries."

"The situation has changed, Zetsu. Nagato cannot have more than a few days left at this point. Focus on him and worry about the rest of us later. Also, quit with that smart mouth of yours and you might actually get somewhere! Just find the girl and hurry back. No excuses!"

Then, just as he had appeared, he had gone. Zetsu cursed and snapped the mirror back into his pocket, muttering angrily to himself,

"First he tells me to find them all impossibly beautiful, tolerant women, now he just wants one. Worthless, greedy monsters! All of them!"

'Who's a monster?" Tobi asked suddenly, coming up behind Zetsu with dango in his hand.

"Come on, Tobi, we've got to go."

They began walking away from the village they'd been in, moving on to the next town in hopes of finding the perfect girl for their sickly master. As they past a pair of travelers, Zetsu caught a bit of what one was saying to the other,

"Beautiful! Scary beautiful! They was like nothin' i'd ever seen before. It was unnatural, that was. I couldn't bring myself to speak to 'em! Especially the girl there. She looked like she could slit my throat if she had the mind to, she did. But still gorgeous, still gorgeous..."

Zetsu stopped in his tracks and spun around. The two men, hearing his feet scrape the ground, turned around as well.

"Excuse me, my good man, I overheard your very interesting description of a beautiful woman and I am wondering... where did you find this girl?"

The man eyed the two of them, Zetsu and Tobi, cautiously. He obviously didn't like their strange appearances but, after a moment he smirked at them,

"You haven't heard of them? I thought everyone in the kingdom knew about them Akatsuki's."

Zetsu smiled and shook his head. The man pointed behind them towards the west and said,

"Go a few miles thata way, through them thick woods 'til you come out the other side. There's a town there. Lotsa pretty girls- but none of 'um even catch your eye once you seen... them."

"Them?" Zetsu asked. So there was more than one...

"A family. Like I done said, called the Akatsuki's. Only one girl but it don't matter. Each one of the boys is prettier'n the last- but they all more'n most men can dream. Why're you so interested?"

"Not for me." Zetsu replied with a sick smile. His mood had just greatly improved, and he suddenly realized he was hungry. "I only care for my humans smothered, covered and diced."

The two travelers grew nervous, watching the strange man before them move ever so much closer, and the smile on his face grow wider.

"Ey Tobi," he called, his voice had changed again, become rougher and smokier, like before. "What do you say we have a nice bite to eat, then make our way to this village and look into this 'Akatsuki' family?"

"I already ate, but you go ahead!"

"Don't mind if I do..." He replied, and opened his mouth wide in a hungry smile, revealing rows of sharp, sparkling teeth...

* * *

Konan was tending to the garden in front of her family's small cottage, thinking about what to make for dinner. She would have Itachi help her. He didn't mind it, and he never complained or made the soup explode like her other brothers. Sometimes she did worry about her middle brother though. He didn't look so healthy these days, and she feared for his vision if he kept reading books in the dark so much.

She suddenly heard footsteps coming up the pathway to their small cottage. She looked up, hoping it was Itachi so they could get started before the sun went down- Hidan always whined when they ate dinner too late, the annoying brat.

Instead of her dark-haired sibling though, she saw two very odd looking men making their way swiftly up the road, heading straight for her. She frowned, standing up to greet them- or scare them away, whichever would best protect her family. The strangers began talking amongst themselves, the shorter one with what looked like two different halves for a face, spoke to the other with an intrigued voice,

"Well, well... it appears that tasty traveler was quite right about this village. Oh! And this must be this sister of the Akatsuki family. Good afternoon Miss."

Konan frowned cautiously at them. They didn't _look _dangerous. The tall one kept bouncing up and down like a little kid. But they didn't seem particularly trustworthy either. It also came as a surprise to her that they didn't seem affected by her beauty like the other men who came to see her.

"Afternoon... How can I help you?"

"Really astounding, isn't it?" The same same, she noticed he had shaggy green hair, asked. Then, he seemed to answer himself in a slightly different voice,

"Oh yes, she's perfect. I can sense it. Our Masters may _finally _be happy. One of them, at least."

Konan took a step back. She didn't like the way the one man was looking at her. She was strong, and wouldn't hesitate to put up a fight, but she didn't like her chances of going up against the both of them.

Behind them, Konan saw a figure moving closer along the path to the house. After another minute she recognized that it was her youngest brother, Deidara. Exhaling, she waited for her brother to get close enough to see that there were two men he didn't know talking to his sister. She hoped his appearance might make the strange men leave before she had to make them leave herself.

When he was about 300 feet away Deidara noticed that Konan was not alone. He frowned and started walking faster.

Unfortunately, Zetsu had noticed Konan stare at someone behind him, and acted faster than Deidara had time to realize. He grabbed a hold of Konan and yelled gleefully,

"Now, Tobi!"

Great billows of smoke swirled around them and Deidara rushed forward, fearing the worst. The smoke cleared rather quickly, but he was too late. His sister was gone.

Itachi came upon him as soon as Deidara decided to run back into town to locate their eldest brother, Hidan, to help them figure out what to do. After explaining what had happened, Deidara frantically asked Itachi,

"What do we do now, hmm?"

"Go find Hidan," Itachi commanded calmly but angrily. "I'm going to go look for clues."

Deidara found Hidan in no time, and as soon he explained the situation, the easily angered brother cursed loudly and punched the nearest wall, leaving a gaping hole. He pulled Deidara away from the village and back towards their cottage, racing up the pathway as quick as they could, hoping Itachi found some sort of clue as to where or even who had taken their sister.

When they reached him they found him holding up a piece of paper and examining it carefully with a deep scowl on his face.

"What's that?" Hidan asked, slightly out of breath for having run all the way.

Itachi held it out to him to read. It had a crudely drawn map on it, then at the bottom, in horrible handwriting, said,

"If you want your sister back, come pay a visit to our castle and we'll see if we can strike some kind of a deal."

The three of them set off at once, not even stopping to discuss the possibility of leaving Konan with some mysterious kidnappers and forgetting about her. She was their sister and they each loved her more than anything. Besides, they were family. No matter who was kidnapped, it was clear they would do whatever it took to get them back.

On the outskirts of the forrest they cast each other nervous glances. They had never been inside the dark forrest before. Hidan steeled himself and the others followed suit, stepping slowly into the thicket of trees in search of this mysterious castle and the strange men who had taken their sister...

* * *

**New Akatsuki story time, Woooooh!**

**This is going to be a little bit like Beauty and the Beast, but not very much. Some things are similar, but mostly it's just an akatsuki AU story with all the different pairings. If you are any kind of Akatsuki fangirl(like me) you will probably enjoy it. XD**

**Please tell me how you like it so faaaaaar!**

**KeikoPanda102**


	2. Story 1: Chapter 2

**First Story: The Beauties and Their Beasts**

**Chapter 2:**

Around the same time Deidara, Hidan and Itachi were arguing over which direction to go(the map was _very _crudely drawn), Zetsu and Tobi, along with Konan had reached a huge castle in the center of an even larger forrest.

Konan was just coming to as they walked through the garden surrounding the castle. It was filled with beautiful roses are far as she could see. If she hadn't been so pissed about having been kidnapped, she would have really appreciated how nice the garden looked, and how much time was obviously put into getting it so nice.

She heard a snort as they made their way through the second gate, the dark building looming over them, taller than anything Konan had ever seen before in her life.

"Finally woke up?" the shorter man asked with smirk. He was walking beside and a little bit ahead of her. Only after he spoke did she realize that she was being carried. She struggled until the taller man dropped her to the ground, keeping a strong grip on her shoulder so she had no chance of running away.

The two of them marched her up the fluid, worn-out stone steps of the castle until they reached giant metal doors that gleamed even though there was no sun reflecting upon them. Without even looking up Konan knew it was a dreary day. She wondered how long it had taken them to reach this strange castle. From the light shining behind her it seemed like it was still morning, so they must have travelled all night and she had slept the whole time. How far from home was she now? If she escaped, would she even be able to find her way back to her family?

The giant-sized doors opened inwards, faster than she expected, and it was pitch-black inside, she couldn't see a thing. Before she knew what was coming, she felt a hand on her back as she was pushed through the door. She lost her balance and tripped over the threshold, falling to the floor right inside the doors.

"Awww, Zetsu! You don't have to be mean!" The voices sounded as if they were fading, growing farther away as Zetsu replied,

"Whatever, not our problem anymore..."

Tobi started to reply but from what Konan could hear, it seemed they had left the room. She looked up, waiting for her eyes to adjust, but it was still so dark there wasn't much to see. Just as she was about to turn around to find the doors she knew were somewhere behind her, she heard the _bang_ that meant the doors had closed, and were most likely locked.

She stayed shakily on the floor, not daring to move around in case she ran into something she would rather not. She felt like she was being watched.

All of the sudden the lights came on, blinding her. She closed her eyes, waited a few seconds, then opened them, hearing a voice above her start to speak,

"Wow... I never expected _this _from Zetsu. She's... beautiful..."

Konan looked up blearily and saw a man standing before her. He was like no man she had ever seen. Orange hair- bright like flames! With black, rod-like piercings all over his face.

And his eyes!

She couldn't help but gasp when she saw them, they had rings surrounding the pupils and they seemed to pulsate as he stared at her. Without a flicker of expression, he reached out a hand to help her up.

Cautiously, and not really understanding why except that she found this man, with his strange eyes, rather captivating, she took his hand. It was cold as ice. He lifted her from the floor with ease. After a moment where she simply stared into his eyes, she remembered where she was and why she was there. She didn't care to find out why she was taken. She needed to see her family again!

Pushing away the hand that had helped her up, she spun around. Now that she could see, she could at least try to flee out the door she had come in.

"You aren't going anywhere. Not after how much money it cost to find you."

Her way was blocked by a huge tan-skinned man. He grabbed her wrists, holding her still and glaring down at her with piercing acid-green eyes that seemed surrounded by blood-red. But, his eyes were not what was so terrifying about him. He had thick, black stitches and scars all over his body, even his face! He looked like a rag-doll, or some sort of mangled corpse. She struggled even harder to get away and from behind her she heard the voice of the orange-haired man say monotonously,

"Come now, Kakuzu. Let her go. There's no need to scare her anymore than she already is."

The corpse-man, Kakuzu, released her wrists with an annoyed grunt, and she jumped back with a gasp.

Thinking quickly, she darted away from the front door and away from the two men that looked more like monsters than humans. She darted the other direction, towards some curved stairs to the left of the entrance. Maybe there would be an escape out back-!

Just as Konan was about to race up the stairs a figure stepped in her way. She looked up, cursing that she had let herself become trapped so easily. Then, she gulped. Staring down at her was what looked like some sort of half-human, half-shark hybrid- another monster!

Shocked and surprised, she backed away from this new terror and looked around at the three of them with growing anticipation. It must have shown on her face that she was scared, because the man with the orange-hair addressed her, saying,

"I apologize for all of this."

He didn't look like he was sorry, but something about him made Konan want to trust him. He walked closer and offered his hand again. That was when she noticed that she had crumbled to the floor after running into the third man inside this mysterious mansion she'd been taken to. She watched his open palm nervously, glancing at the other two that surrounded her.

"My name is Pain," he said softly. "What is yours?"

"Konan," she replied, taking his hand and standing back up.

"Nice to meet you, Konan. This is Kakuzu." He nodded towards the man standing by the front doors with the scars. "And this is Kisame." He motioned to the terrifying-looking man behind him.

Kisame smiled and revealed rows of sharp, pointed teeth. She flinched automatically.

"Sorry for scaring you. I may look like I eat people, but that'd be Zetsu who's the cannibal, not me."

Konan realized that she had judged him unfairly because of the way he looked. He was really very nice, there was kindness in his eyes. She barely noticed the man called "Pain" leading her deeper into the castle.

Almost instantly she snapped her hand out of his and glared.

"Why did you kidnap me?" She demanded.

Without a trace of emotion he replied, "I am sorry... but you must stay."

Worry and confusion flickered over her face. None of these men seemed like they were going to give her an answer anytime soon. Then, Pain raised his right hand and snapped.

In a second, Zetsu and Tobi appeared beside him, they had come zooming from around the corner. They approached with slightly bowed heads.

The way they addressed him made Konan wonder who he was, what kind of power he had. Judging from the castle, he had money- but maybe there was more to it than that. He might even be royalty...

"Show Konan to her room please."

Both the servants nodded slightly then he addressed Konan, staring at her with those enchanting eyes again, "Dinner is in an hour. There is a dress prepared for you. I would be pleased if you would wear it. I promise nothing bad will happen to you inside this castle, but you must trust me. It will all be explained eventually."

With that she was whisked away down a dark hallway, each of the odd servants guiding one of her hands. The last thing she heard before the other's voices grew too far away was the one called Kakuzu growling in annoyance,

"Where is that damned artist, Sasori...?"

* * *

Konan was tossed inside a large, richly decorated room. It occurred to her that whoever these men were, they were even richer than she had originally thought. Why kidnap her then? She was afraid of the answer, but something in Pain's eyes had made her less afraid. She contented herself to waiting for the answer instead of demanding it, though she still had doubts, and wanted nothing more than to escape this place and find her brothers.

As she looked around the room she saw the exquisite decorations that were obviously carefully prepared for this room in particular. There was a giant canopy bed with gold showering the pillows and spread- as well as the rest of the room.

To compliment the radiant gold, a rusty red-brown color was mixed in here and there. Then, she saw on the opposite side of the room, huge glass doors that led out onto a balcony. Perhaps this was her escape!

She ran towards them and flung them open, ignoring the two servants behind her. Then, when she looked over the railing, she saw that her plan would not work out like she wanted. It was a straight drop from a cliff that the castle rested on. Even if she tied all the sheets together and used them to lower herself down... it wouldn't be enough.

"See," a voice came behind her." No way out. You might as well get used to it."

It was Zetsu, and he was smirking. "Tobi will help you into your dress. See you at dinner."

Then he left, slamming the door closed behind him.

The taller, strangely cheerful servant approached Konan on the balcony. He didn't try to force her into the midnight blue dress she saw hanging on a hook beside the bed, he just leaned over the banister and breathed in the fresh air. It was still a murky day outside but he acted like it was the most beautiful summer's day. She glanced at him curiously then sighed, looking out at the trees far beyond the cliff. She was so high up that she was sure on a clear day she would be able to see over the entire forrest.

"Is Miss Konan worried about her brothers?" Tobi asked as he faced her, resting his chin on his hand, his elbow on the railing.

She nodded slightly, feeling that this man was the least affronting of all she had met that day, and most likely the most trustworthy as well. Seeing her saddened expression, Tobi reached inside one of his pockets and moved in closer to her, beckoning her to follow suit.

"Would you like to see them, just to make sure they're okay? I borrowed Zetsu's mirror- borrowing isn't stealing, Tobi is a good boy! But you can use it if you want."

He held out an ornate mirror to her and said, "It doesn't just work to communicate, if you say one of their names it will show them."

Intrigued, she held it up and, although not entirely trusting this strange magic item, spoke her first brother's name into the reflecting surface.

"Hidan?"

Instantly her face faded and was replaced by the image of scowling pink eyes. Before she had time to register her surprise she also heard his voice coming from the mirror.

"No! Deidara you fucking moron, that's not a tree, it's a _well_. See, right there!"

In the next moment she heard her youngest brother Deidara's voice, and even saw his bright blond hair beside Hidan's looking equally frustrated.

"Fine! But if we get lost I'm blaming you, un!"

"This way." Itachi's voice was calm and reasonable, like always, as he commanded his siblings to go to the left, past an oddly shaped well protruding from the flowered earth. She watched as both Hidan and Deidara followed after him obediently, Hidan muttering under his breath, but trusting his younger brother's judgement anyhow.

Konan was happy to just set her eyes on them, but where were they going? Then, it came to her like a flash.

"They're coming here, aren't they?"

"Zetsu left them a note with a map. Are you mad, Miss Konan?"

She sighed and returned the magic mirror to him where he stowed it into his pocket again.

"No, I'm not mad. They're just doing what I would do. It's not like I expected them to just forget about me. Those guys are just little brats who never do what they're told- even Itachi. They'd still come if I would have told them not to."

She walked back inside the room and Tobi followed her. It started to rain just as she shut the glass doors. She hoped her brother's found somewhere to stay the night so they weren't stuck in the rain. Then, she turned around and faced Tobi with a smile.

"Now, how about that dress? If I'm forced to go to this dinner, I might as well look nice. Besides... midnight blue is my color..."

* * *

As it turned out, Itachi, Hidan and Deidara were indeed in need of a place to get out of the rain. Not only were they in the middle of nowhere, Hidan also believed them to be lost, no matter how many times Itachi told him they were going the right way. He was sure they should have found something after all their walking.

The three of them were huddled below a very large tree, not quite enough to keep the wet off of them. After a few minutes, Deidara grew tired of doing nothing, and decided to climb the tree they were beneath to see if he could spot any houses nearby they could use to get out of the weather.

Not even had he reached the top and he saw it- a giant castle was not a stones throw from them! He quickly climbed down and told his brothers. They ran in the direction he told them and in no time at all they were before the first gate.

Zetsu, having taken his mirror back from Tobi a few minutes before, saw them coming, and went down to the gate to greet them and show them inside.

None of them were suspicious of the odd looking character. They were too excited about the prospect of going inside such a fine looking building, not to mention out of the rain! As the great metal doors swung open, they stepped over the threshold into darkness, never expecting that the place they had been searching for was waiting for them all along.

* * *

**Next chapter, the Beauties will meet their Beasts! Get ready! XD**

**Please, please review, because I really like this story, and I wanna know that I'm not the only one!**

**KeikoPanda102**


	3. Story 1: Chapter 3

**First Story: The Beauties and Their Beasts**

**Chapter 3:**

Upon entering the castle, the three brothers realized that perhaps they had no idea what they were getting into. The lights came on and all they could see was rich glamour all around them. The carpet was a deep maroon and matched the tapestries hanging on the walls around the main entrance hall. The stairs, two sets going opposite directions, were curved and the railings gleamed gold in the light of the striking chandelier that hung more than 20 feet above their heads.

The added light also threw into relief their guide's feature's, namely, Zetsu and his mismatched face. Deidara felt as though he had seen him somewhere before but couldn't quite place him. He led them up the stairs and said in a pleasant voice,

"We have some clothes you can all change into, if you wish. TOBI!"

A second later a tall man appeared beside them at the top of the stairs, saluting the first man with his hand up to the mask covering his face. Again, Deidara found him familiar, but didn't think too hard about it. The new servant spoke to the first, saying,

"Oh, more guests! I just finished putting the dress on Ko-"

"TOBI!" Zetsu growled, his voice changing as he glared at his partner in annoyance. Tobi realized his mistake and covered his mouth. As he voice returned to normal Zetsu said,

"Tobi will show you to a room, where you will find an outfit to put on. Once you've done that you must wait to be called down for dinner, the Master's will want to meet you." This he said to Itachi, who nodded and followed Tobi to the right. Zetsu turned to face Hidan and Deidara and led them up farther into the castle. First, to a hallway filled on either side with masterpieces of paintings and statues. They stopped at the end, right before the hall broke off and led upwards towards a tall tower off the side of the castle. Zetsu opened a door and showed Deidara inside.

"Please get dressed and wait to be called down for dinner. Don't wander around quite yet."

He closed the door behind him then led Hidan through a different hall and a few rows of stairs that went down. After a bit of walking they came to what looked like an underground tunnel. It was cold and Hidan began to shiver because he was still wet from the rain. Finally they reached the end of this tunnel and Zetsu opened another door that let into a room. Hidan rushed inside and over to the fire on the far wall. After giving him the same orders he'd given Deidara, Zetsu closed the door and walked back up the stairs, feeling very accomplished.

Itachi's walk had been much shorter than his brother's. Barely had they gone past a row of rain splattered windows did they reach a door that Tobi opened and Itachi entered. He too told Itachi not to wander, and meet them for dinner as soon as he was dressed. Then, he left the quiet man alone to change and went back through a few double doors until he reached the dining room where he and Zetsu were to prepare dinner for eight.

As it turns out, the only one to remain successfully inside his room was Hidan, after changing clothes he found that he was still chilly, and remained about two feet from the fire until deciding it was time to go to dinner.

The clothes left for Deidara were strangely revealing. A mesh shirt with silky purple pants and a thin jacket to match. They were also rather feminine, but Deidara didn't mind. He had worn girl clothes until he was almost 15 because they just seemed to suit him better, this was not much different. Once changed, he had the strongest desire to go back into the hallway he had come down and examine the many statues that lined the walls. They all looked like classics, some even from ancient times perhaps. They were not really his style, but art non-the-less, and he wanted another look.

He opened the door quietly, checking that no one was outside before slipping out into the hallway. Some of the pieces were truly astounding, the work of a master. He had to restrain himself from blowing the lot of them to smithereens, they would look ten times more beautiful that way instead of sitting in this abandoned hallway gathering dust.

Just as he neared the beginning of the hallway he heard a crunching sound that came from somewhere around the room his clothes had been in. He walked back towards it carefully but didn't hear the sound again. He almost gave up a different sound reached his ears, drifting down from the thin staircase at the end of the hallway. It was a kind of clacking noise, like metal hitting wood.

"Hmmm," Deidara thought out loud. "He said not to wander but..." That little staircase was very inviting.

Slowly, he followed the clacking noise up into a thin tower. The staircase spiraled as he went up and up, higher and higher into this lone tower. It seemed to get bigger as he went up, there were even a few doors that went off the sides. Finally the clacking noise got so loud, he knew he must nearly be at the top.

Then, just as he rounded the last corner, it stopped. Deidara held his breath and firmly pressed his back to the wall, but curiosity was overcoming him. He really wanted to know what, or who, was in the room just beyond the corner. He slid along the wall just enough so he could see two doors. One was large and closed, another was a bit smaller and open.

Inside that door was a room full of so many things Deidara couldn't even begin to imagine how they all got up the stairs and shoved through that door. There was a giant telescope angled perfectly through a hole in the roof, a roof made entirely of glass, like a greenhouse. It was domed and didn't have one mark on it, not a scratch. Next to the telescope was a bed that looked like it had rarely been slept on. It was covered with fabrics of all colors and rolls of string and silk laid on the floor beside it. Hanging on the walls of this oval shaped room were dolls, at least they looked like dolls from what he could see.

And there was one giant doll in the center of the room. Hulking and round, with a strange metal tail like that of a scorpion suspended behind it. It's face looked strangely human, but also like it was carved from wood. It was staring straight at Deidara.

"Who are you?"

Deidara jumped, his heart lurching right to the sky in shock. It was the doll that had just spoken to him! His mouth moved and everything- it was alive.

Amazed, Deidara took a step closer. The glassy, scowling eyes of the doll followed Deidara's movements. The more he watched it, the less like a doll it looked, and more like a puppet with no strings. Before he realized what he'd done, Deidara was inside the room, not a foot away from the strange creature. That was when it spoke again.

"I asked you a question, little girl. Who are you? Who let you inside this castle?"

"I'm not a girl, un!" Deidara replied. Now that he had gotten over the shock that this thing could talk, he realized it was actually very rude. "It was raining and my brother's and I saw this castle. That weird servant let us in and gave us clothes, un."

"What are you doing up here? I know Zetsu wouldn't give you permission to wander around the castle of your own accord." Deidara noticed his voice was very gruff and low. He also sounded impatient, like he wanted information now rather than later.

"I was in the hallway downstairs and I heard a noise, yeah. I only came up to see what it was." Then, before he could stop himself, he asked, "What are you...un?"

The hulking figure spun around faster than Deidara would have thought him capable and busied himself with some tools on the other side of the room as he said,

"First you trespass on my studio, then ask me rude questions before even introducing yourself. You're just a foolish young child, you understand nothing. Leave, before you break something."

"My name is Deidara, un. My sister was kidnapped and my brother's and I are out looking for her. I'm sorry I came up without asking but... did you say this was your studio, un?"

"Yes, what of it?" he asked swiftly, turning back around.

"You are an artist then, un? Don't tell me... those pieces downstairs, are they your too?"

The large, oddly-shaped man appraised Deidara for a moment before speaking slowly,

"...Of course those belong to me, but they are old, art of the past. They are not nearly enduring enough. The stone will erode and crumble, the paint will fade... no, I have moved on to something much more enduring. These puppets are my new art projects. Why is someone like you interested?"

"I'm an artist too, un," Deidara said shyly, taking a closer look at the art supplies that filled the room. This strange man was a master, no doubt. Smiling, he pulled out a small sculpture from the pocket of the clothes he had changed into. Holding it in his hand, he waited for just a few seconds then, BOOM!

As the colors and smoke faded from the air he giggled happily, waiting to see this elder artists reaction. he hadn't jumped back, nor did he seem surprised in the least. After a moment he turned away and muttered,

"That is not art..."

Deidara's good mood vanished right away. He frowned and walked around the large body so he could see into this mysterious master's face and said,

"It is art, un! My art. Did you see how fast it faded? How lovely it looked in it's final moment? Destruction if beauty, un."

"Foolish child, that is the farthest thing-"

He was cut off by a voice that seemed to come from the walls around them. It was Zetsu's voice, the servant from before.

"Master Sasori, dinner is ready if you would be so kind to come down and join us."

Before he had even finished announcing dinner, this "Master Sasori" was heading towards the door. His huge figure barely fit, but somehow he made it. Deidara ran after him, frustrated and annoyed. As he stepped out of the studio door he felt a metal coil wind itself around his waist, pulling him into another door. It was the door that had been closed beside the open studio door. As it turned out, it was the door into some sort of a lift. Sasori's tail pulled Deidara inside before the blond had any time to argue.

"What's the hurry, un?" Deidara asked as he flipped his hair back and stood up beside Sasori.

"I don't like to keep people waiting, and I couldn't just leave someone as dangerous as you standing in my studio. Everything would be destroyed by the time I got back. So you're coming down to dinner with me, hold on."

Just as he said "hold on," the floor started moving. Deidara grabbed a hold of the covering over Sasori's lumpy body to steady himself so he wouldn't topple over on the floor. The ride down was very bumpy, and the second they reached the bottom Sasori slid out of the door, Deidara following closely behind.

"Wait up for me, Danna!" Deidara called as Sasori walked towards two large double doors that led into the dining room. When he heard Deidara call to him he turned around curiously.

"Danna?" He asked when the blond caught up with him.

"Because you're a master, un," Deidara said with a smile. "I want to know more about your art, if that's okay."

Sasori stared at him for a few moments, then turned quickly and headed into the large dining room saying briskly,

"Come on, it's time for dinner."

* * *

When Itachi had entered his specified room, he found a modest outfit laying on the bed for him to put on. There was a silky red shirt with a high neckline and thin long sleeves he rolled up so he could use his hands better. The black pants that had been laid out were tighter going down the leg, but fit perfectly and felt just comfortable enough. The pair of black leather boots that went halfway up his shin also fit just right, he wondered how that was possible, but ignored it as irrelevant. There was a brush on the bed as well, a mahogany handle, and it looked brand new, never used before. He was grateful for it because the rain and running had matted his hair. After he finished brushing all the tangles out he noticed a long, thin red scarf also laying neatly on the spread. He carefully used it to tie back his hair, then looked at himself in the mirror hanging on the wall.

After that, he left the room, walking quietly down the carpeted hallway of the castle. See, Itachi had spent almost all afternoon trying to read the map his sister's kidnappers had left them(the map was now soaking beneath the large tree the three brother's had been huddled under, much too wet to be deciphered now). He was sure, as soon as Deidara had told them there was a castle nearby, that inside the castle he would find Konan. Luckily, they had been allowed to enter easily and without having to break in. Now, all he needed to do was find his sister and his other too brothers and hopefully escape before anyone in this castle realized they had gone missing.

From what he'd seen outside and inside the castle, he was sure it was divided into four sections; two halves in the main building, the dining room and kitchen in the center, a lower basement section, and a taller, tower-based section at the top.

Deidara and Hidan looked as if they were being led to either the underground or above sections, and he was in the right section. Therefore, he figured, Konan might be somewhere in the left wing.

The sun was sinking in the sky outside the windows of the hall Itachi walked swiftly through. He passed into a different hall, hoping he was going the right way. There was a light ahead of him, coming from one of the rooms to the left. He slowed down as he neared it, making sure he was silent in case someone was inside.

He looked inside as he passed it and found his heart lurch a bit when he did. It was a library, a huge one. Books lined the walls and the shelves that scattered the floors. Itachi had the strongest desire to go inside, pick a random book, and curl up beneath one of the odd lamps that gave the room it's strange blue tinted light.

He looked up through the open door as the strange lighting intrigued him. He nearly gasped because when he did, he saw the atop the books, the ceiling of the entire room from corner to corner was the bottom a very large fish tank. Hundreds of huge creatures swam above the books, lit up from above. It was the most astonishing library Itachi had ever seen, eons more enchanting than the tiny book shop in the village his family lived in.

He couldn't help himself. He slowly wandered inside the doors, his eyes torn between staring at the enchanting ceiling and the hundreds of books along the walls.

He had forgotten temporarily about his sister and his brothers, and he didn't even realize that he wasn't supposed to be there until a deep voice caught his attention and brought him back to reality,

"And who might this be?"

* * *

**Yes! I shall succeed in posting a new chapter everyday! No promises though, but I wanna do that for at least a week. **

**Sorry not all the Beauties met their Beasts today... but there will be more tomorrow. Hope you like the story so far!**

**KeikoPanda102**


	4. Story 1: Chapter 4

**Story 1: The Beauties and Their Beasts**

**Chapter 4: **

Appearing from behind one of the towering bookcases came an almost equally tall man. But his height was only part of the formula that made him so strange to Itachi. His very skin was a grayish-blue color, and it wasn't from the blue light that shone down from the fish tank above them.

He wasn't wearing a shirt, just a loose pair of pants and was dripping wet. His also blue hair looked short and spiked, even when wet, and his eyes were small and black, like an animals. He had lines beneath his eyes that looked like gills and Itachi could just see into his mouth where rows of jagged, sharp teeth sat, looking as if they were just about to tear into a piece of meat.

Itachi backed away, towards the open door. The man picked up a towel that had been laying on one of the couches in the library. Itachi looked down at the floor. Wherever he stepped, this man dripped water onto the carpet. Before he could stop himself Itachi scowled and reprimanded him,

"You shouldn't walk around wet in here, you'll damage the books!"

He looked up, surprise clearly written on his face. Itachi backed away again, sure that what he had said was bound to make this dangerous-looking man angry. Then, he just looked amused, and laughed.

"Heh, sorry, I guess you're right. I never read these things, so I don't think about it. You probably love books, right, Mr...?"

He trailed off, directing a hand to Itachi. Cautiously, Itachi stepped forward, his eyes narrowed in apprehension. After a minute he said softly,

"My name is Itachi. My brothers and I were offered clothes and a place to stay the night, out of the rain. I... saw this library and I couldn't resist. You have so many books..."

While drying himself off, the stranger replied modestly,

"Well, this was already here when I got to the castle, I just added the aquarium up there, it was the only place that was big enough. Did Zetsu let you in? The weird guy with the two faces?"

"Yes, he did. Can you tell me, please," Itachi added. "Who you are and how you came to live in such a palace?"

The man finished drying, tossed the towel back onto the couch, and grabbed a shirt. As he pulled his arms through the sleeves he said thoughtfully,

"Nagato was here first, he's... I guess this is his castle. Never thought to ask him how _he_ got it. I think he might be royalty or something. He lives in the left wing. I think Kakuzu came second. He was a thief, a rich one too. I think he was going to retire when he came across this castle and decided on one last blow out. When he came inside though, he wanted to live here instead. Him and Nagato are friends now, and he lives in the basement, fixed it up really nice. He wanted to be close to the vault down there, where he keeps all the money, you know?

"Sasori was third, he's up in the towers, he likes to look at the stars, says they're beautiful or something, they just looks like specks to me. He had a lot of money too, when he found them, probably from his art. He was looking for a place to settle down, so they agreed it was beneficial for all of them to be together.

"I came last, and brought Zetsu and Tobi with me. They've been with me for as long as I can remember. When I was... human, I guess, they were my lackey's. We were experimented on by this mad scientist, he kept us all captive for a while, but eventually I got out and killed him. Now, Zetsu can't live without human flesh, I can breathe underwater, and Tobi won't ever take that mask off. I don't even think Zetsu knows what he looks like underneath it."

He looked up suddenly, as if surprised that he had gone on talking for so long. He turned away, back through the rows of books he'd come in from, muttering lowly,

"Sorry to bore you with my life story, not like you care... it's stupid..."

Itachi hurried after him through the towers of books.

"Wait, I wasn't bored," he said when he caught up. He placed a smooth, dainty hand on the man's tall, broad shoulder and he turned around, surprised at Itachi actions again. "What's your name?"

"Kisame..." he breathed. For a moment the air between them was strangely constricting. Itachi felt self-conscious for some reason. The tension might have gone on indefinitely, but they were interrupted by a voice booming through the library, making both of them jump back in surprise.

"Master Kisame, dinner is ready. Please bring along that tasty visitor as well, I think he'll find what he's looking for in the dining room."

Itachi's breath caught. They knew he was looking for something, they probably knew he was looking for his sister(at least, he had been until he saw the library). Did that mean he would find her at dinner?

He frowned. Kisame just stood, a bit confused as to what was even going on. Suddenly, Itachi took his hand and started pulling him out of the library. Before he could question it, Itachi commanded softly,

"Come along, Kisame!"

Kisame followed without hesitation, and with a slight smile adorning his blue-skinned face.

* * *

Far below the castle, Hidan had actually obeyed instructions for once in his life. While his two brother's had not even bothered to listen to the command, "Do not wander," he had. Not, of course, because he respected rules or anything of that sort, simply because it was cold in the tunnel outside his room, and warm beside the fire.

Plus, the clothes given to him weren't particularly warm. They were silk, just like his brothers' were. The pants were red and fit snugly to his skin. His outfit resembled Itachi's a bit more than Deidara's, but it was different non-the-less. His shoes were black boots too, but came up all the way to knees and tied with a string instead of just snapped, like Itachi's. His shirt was silver, like the blade of a knife, and billowing. The long sleeves looked like the sleeves of a pirate, he liked the way they felt when he moved his arms. There was a wide opening down the center of the torso of the shirt. Hidan left it hanging open instead of tying it closed because it felt more natural that way. It left his toned chest perfectly exposed. There was also a red choker laid out for him, and once he put it on he realized he rather liked it.

The room he'd been placed in was somewhat barren, there wasn't much in it. It definitely didn't look as richly decorated as the main entrance hall or the room Deidara was sent to. The large, round bed in the center took up most of the floor space. The ceiling was very low, and seemed even lower because it had folds of dark fabric hanging from it. The walls all around were stone and there were no windows because it was an underground room. It was lit not only by the main fire in the fireplace that Hidan stayed in front of, but also by many smaller lamps along the walls. On one wall there was a table that had nothing on it. If not for the cackling fire it would have been dead silent.

Hidan was too busy admiring the nice clothes and warm fire to notice many of these things. When he sat down on the edge of the bed, he found that it was rather comfortable, but that was the extent of his interest in the room itself. He really wasn't inside it for very long before he heard a voice coming from somewhere around the walls, announcing in the familiar voice of the weird servant,

"Master Kakuzu, dinner is ready. If you would please be so kind as to fetch one of our guests who happens to be in the room beside you and show him the way up."

Hidan stood and scowled.

"Who the hell's this Kakuzu guy anyway?" He muttered to himself. A second later he heard a creak, and the door of the room he was inside opened slowly.

Hidan turned to face the opening door and stood up from the bed. He was a bit curios as to what a master of this castle might look like. Kakuzu was not as he'd predicted from the way he looked.

He'd covered his entire body so the only skin you could see was that around his eyes and forehead. He was wearing a mask over his mouth now even though he hadn't been wearing one before. His eyes narrowed as he took in Hidan's appearance.

Hidan felt himself blush under that strong gaze. He faltered a little when Kakuzu began walking towards him.

"Wh- what are you lookin' at?" Hidan stuttered firmly as Kakuzu stopped before him, staring down thoughtfully at the eldest Akatsuki son. After a minute he finally spoke, saying in a cruel, manly voice,

"So you're mine, huh. Not very feminine, I see. Since when did I lower my standards to male? I'll have to speak with Zetsu about that. Besides you're lack of proper genitalia, I must admit you are rather fetching. If you were in the sex slave industry you would sell for a high price with this face."

At this, he raised a gloved hand and grabbed forcefully onto Hidan's chin, lifting it up and to the side as if he were examining him. Hidan's eyes widened and he was at a loss for words for a second. Then, he became perfectly livid.

He smacked away Kakuzu's hand in an instant then clenched his fists and stood glaring at the taller man, absolutely shaking with rage.

"No one has ever- ever even _dared _to touch me-! You fucking bastard! You don't have any clue who you're messing with! You ain't gonna goddamn sell me on any fucking sex slave shit! Who the fuck are you acting all cocky-"

"You're loud," Kakuzu interrupted him, his eyes narrowed dangerously. Hidan gulped, keeping a defensive position in case Kakuzu was going to try something else. "And obviously stupid," Kakuzu added, grimacing beneath the mask. "I really am going to have to talk to Zetsu about this. How he ever thought you were the suitable match for me I'll never know. I've barely spoken to you for five minutes and I already want to snap your neck."

"Well I don't fucking like you either you old pervert!" Hidan spat back.

Kakuzu didn't appreciate that much. He grabbed Hidan's arm tightly and, ignoring all his screams and feeble attempts to break away, led him up through the dark tunnels and into the main part of the castle. As they reached the large double doors that led into dinning room, they opened and Kakuzu tossed Hidan unceremoniously into the room where six pairs of eyes all turned and stared at them.

"What the fuck was that for you goddamn asshole?" Hidan yelled back at Kakuzu who ignored him and walked over to the table. Tobi stood fretting in the corner and Pain, Kisame, and Sasori glanced at each other, wondering what the situation was exactly.

Itachi and Deidara just rolled their eyes and Deidara mumbled towards Hidan,

"We haven't been here one night and you're already making enemies, un?"

Itachi then added in his two cents,

"Hidan, you do realize that these people are the ones who have offered us clothes and a place to stay the night, is it really wise to go picking fights with them?"

Hidan just gapped at his two brother's in shock.

"B- but, you guys didn't hear what he fuckin' _said_ to me! He's a goddamn jerk, I don't care if he's rich or gives us a place to stay!"

His brothers ignored him and Tobi rushed over to try and calm him down.

"Can everyone have a seat please?" He said in a panicked voice like a child's. "Zetsu'll be mad if I don't have everyone seated when he gets here!"

He then quickly directed everyone to their seats. Deidara was beside Sasori and Itachi beside Kisame. When it came to getting Hidan to have a seat he refused point blank to sit next to Kakuzu. In the end, Kakuzu himself had to forcibly push Hidan into the chair where he pouted about it for the next few minutes. Itachi and Deidara both thought that Kakuzu's approach to controlling their brother was actually quite inspired; no one had ever really been able to make him do anything before.

Then, when everyone was finally seated(Itachi noticed that there was a spare seat beside Pain, whom he had been introduced to a few moments before), footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs just past the doors of the dinning room.

Tobi went over to the doors and before opening them, said happily,

"And now, our final guest for the night..."

* * *

**Oh Hidan and Kakuzu... your demented relationship brings me so much joy. Don't worry, they may hate each other now, but you know what they say, "It's a thin line between love and hate." For KakuHida fangirls, that line is all but nonexistent...**

**Thanks for reading! Please review, it makes me write fasterrrr!**

**KeikoPanda102**


	5. Story 1: Chapter 5

**Story 1: The Beauties and Their Beasts**

**Chapter 5:**

The double doors opened and Konan stepped through. She looked better than ever draped in a flowing midnight blue gown with strings of pearls around her neck.

As soon as she entered she saw her three brothers and a thankful smile formed on her face. She rushed forward as all three boys did the same and they hugged in the entrance of the dining room, frantically asking each other questions.

"Konan- the hell? What are you doing here?"

"I can't believe you were in this castle all along, un!"

"I knew this was the place, why were you taken here?"

"Guy, guys," she said soothingly, holding up her hands and smiling. "How did you find me so fast? I don't know why they took me here, I was hoping they would be explaining at dinner tonight, at least... that is what Pain promised..."

She looked up and over to the man farthest down on the table. He stood and pulled back the chair that was beside him, motioning for Konan to take that seat. Then, he stared at her and said softly,

"If we can have the appetizers before business, I would be very happy to explain the... situation."

She took her place beside him and her brothers followed suit, although begrudgingly in Hidan's case. As soon as they were seated Zetsu and Tobi placed extravagant dishes before them on the tables. Only then did everyone realize how hungry they were.

While eating, conversation bubbled up between them. Hidan was explaining how he'd never tasted food so good to Kakuzu who found it amusing that he'd gotten over his sour mood so quickly once food was in front of him. Itachi was having the most pleasant conversation with Kisame, though it was mostly one-sided because Itachi didn't talk much. Sasori's huge mouth opened and he dumped food inside as Deidara sat wondering how his large and awkward body worked. Pain and Konan were the quietest, but probably the sweetest to hear.

"Do you like the dress?" He asked softly, leaning down and addressing her directly.

"It is very nice." She replied earnestly, smiling at him as she daintily placed a small carrot into her mouth. "I have never worn something as nice as this, nor as elegant. I wonder if I look strange in it, since I'm just a village girl, after all."

"On the contrary," he said, looking straight into her eyes, "I have never seen a dress worn more beautifully. I cannot understand how it is possibly that you lived without a husband or lover of some sort in that village. Were the men all blind?"

Konan had never heard such flattery before. It was very honest. She could tell that he was simply stating what he thought, not trying to manipulate her like other would do. Before she could answer him, Zetsu came between there seats to refill their wine glasses and said to Pain,

"Apparently, this entire family had suitors come to visit them daily, yet none of them ever felt worthy to actually speak to any of them. How idiotic, wouldn't you say, Master Pain?"

"Cowards," he scowled slightly, then added, "Were you never lonely like that?"

"I had my brothers but... yes, I do suppose I was lonely from time to time..."

Suddenly she felt his hand holding her's and she looked back, surprised. He lifted it and pressed his cold lips against the back, then murmured,

"I would very much like to save you from that loneliness..."

"Is that why you kidnapped me, to- to make me fall for you or something?"

"Something like that..." he admitted softly, releasing her hand and turning away.

Konan didn't know what to think of this man anymore. He seemed gentle at times but very blunt and commanding at others. She returned to eating in silence, waiting for him to answer the questions she needed to be answered.

Once the soup had been removed from the table by Zetsu and Tobi, Pain cleared his throat loudly and all feel silent.

"Akatsuki family; Konan, Deidara, Hidan, Itachi, I am sure you are all very curious as to why you have been brought here."

"I thought we just came to make a deal and get our sister back! Why the hell are you keeping us-?"

"Hidan, quiet." Konan said, not taking her eyes off of Pain. Her eldest brother silenced himself unhappily as he continued,

"This whole thing started about a month ago. I... got sick. Very sick. The only thing that keeps me alive is using a temporary body that isn't really mine so my real body can rest. Yes, it is how you are thinking- this body is not the real me. I realized that my time here on earth is fading, and it saddened me greatly, for all I would have left behind is this great castle and the many treasures it hold. But those things are trivial, monetary value cannot satisfy a grieving heart."

Kakuzu cleared his throat at this, and Kisame shot him a warning glance. Pain went on,

"I wanted... something, before I died. It took me a few days to figure out what it was that I wanted, but finally I knew. I wanted a family. Some sort of lasting piece of myself that I knew would live on."

It was completely silent as he spoke. Konan felt her heart rate increase as she listened. His story was sad, but she could relate to it somehow. At the same time it scared her. She could predict what he would say next.

"The only problem was that I had no one beside me to help me create the family I desired. I needed a wife. Kakuzu, Sasori and Kisame shared my sentiments. We were all a bit lonely, living so secluded in this place. We sent Tobi and Zetsu scouring the country-side in search of the right women that were just right for all of us. The others just wanted beauty but I knew that to be with one of us, me in particular, a woman would need to be more than just physically appealing, she would have to be strong, someone who could put up with everything that is wrong with all of us."

Kisame hung his head and grimaced at these words. Itachi stared at him, his deep black eyes nearly penetrating the wall Kisame had around him.

"Zetsu and Tobi were gone for days. Zetsu can sense things about people, and he always said that the girls they found were not right somehow. Then... he found you, Konan, and by some miracle, your entire family as well. I apologize greatly for kidnapping you, but I have little time left."

Konan felt as if she couldn't breath. She knew what was coming. Pain stared straight at her as he spoke,

"I will not force you, Konan. Please consider marrying me, taking me for all that I am, even if I am less than most men, and bear my children so I can live after I am no longer living. I know... it is a lot to ask. Too much to ask, much too much, but I have to choices left. Please, I beg you. Consider..."

She held his gaze and everyone else held their breathes for her reply. Finally she tore herself away from those eyes, she felt like they were sucking her in. She leapt from her seat and ran towards the door.

Before exiting in a teary haze she called back at Pain,

"I will! I will consider! Please wait a bit longer for m- my answer!"

* * *

Her brothers of course instantly jumped up from the table and ran after her. Pain sighed and returned to his seat, motioning for Zetsu to come closer.

"Yes, Master Pain?"

"Could you please bring them the rest of dinner in their rooms. They can have anything they would like. Anything!" He added, cutting off Kakuzu who was about to interrupt. "I don't care how expensive. Make sure they have everything they need."

"Of course." Zetsu replied, and he and Tobi quickly followed the others out of the dinning room.

There was silence for a few moments after their departure, then Pain slowly murmured,

"You all think I'm foolish."

Kakuzu shook his head, exasperated with his friends actions.

"If it were me, I wouldn't have given her the choice. Not in your condition."

"Me neither," Sasori added gruffly. "I don't understand you sometimes."

Pain looked towards Kisame for his opinion. He rested his elbows on the table and folded his hands, thinking. Finally he sighed and shook his head like Kakuzu had done.

"I think I've got to agree with the others on this one, Nagato. Is there really time to be chivalrous when you're dying?"

Pain stood from the table and looked at each of them separately before announcing in his normal monotonous voice,

"The world wouldn't be in as much of a mess if there was more chivalry these days. I am confident that everything will work out in the long run."

* * *

Konan had rushed down the hallways of the great castle straight back to the room she was given. She flung the glass balcony doors wide and crashed into the banister overlooking the forrest. The moonlight shone down on the trees and it was a clear night, clearer than the day had been, so the view was much farther now.

Konan didn't see the trees though, or the waterfall and river that had been obscured by fog earlier, and she didn't even notice the ocean glittering on the very edge of the horizon a thousand miles away. Her tears blurred everything before her and all she could see was the memory of Pain's eyes as he had spoken about death and marriage and children back in the dinning room.

Konan rarely, if ever, cried. She was the kind of woman who felt that tears were weakness, and if she must cry, it was to be in private. It was so shocking a sight that her brothers didn't know what to do to comfort her. When they caught up with her and found her sobbing on the balcony they glanced at one another with wide eyes, perplexed that she would be so upset over what had happened at dinner. They had seen her handle much tougher things than this before without even batting an eye. Deidara made to go forward and console her, but both Hidan and Itachi held him back. She needed some time.

They waited a few minutes and her tears slowly faltered. She spun around and stared at them sadly, then ran into their arms and let them wrap her in a tight circle as she cried again. Finally through her tears she muttered,

"I'm so glad you're here. I couldn't do this on my own."

They all went inside and sat on the large bed. Hidan closed the balcony doors because the night air was blowing and making them all shiver. Deidara was the first to address Konan gently,

"I don't understand, un. Why are you so upset?"

"Konan, this guy fucking _kidnapped _you. You're acting like you care about him or something," Hidan added, scowling.

Konan stared at them thoughtfully for a moment then sighed, turning towards the rain splattered windows as she spoke.

"I'm scared. I'm scared because I think I could really have his children! I almost... I almost want them. And I know it's weird because you're right, Hidan, he kidnapped me and I barely know him but there's something about him that's-"

She cut herself off. They saw her lip piercing move under her lip, showing that she was moving it with her tongue inside her mouth, a habit she always picked up when she was nervous or thoughtful.

"I think I really want to go through with it. If- if it were normal, and he was just a man asking to marry me I know I would say yes in an instant! He's kind and handsome, even if that isn't his true body, but I didn't really understand that part. That's the problem though! He's asking me to- to fall in love with him and bear his child and then he's just going to die! I barely know him and he's going to die. I can't think about it because I want to know more about him. I can't imagine raising a child that was part of him and having to see his face in that child's face for years and years and knowing that he's gone and not coming back and there's nothing I could do. You see?"

She looked imploringly between her brothers. They were still shocked at the fact that she was even considering marry this strange man and having a baby with him. Finally Itachi spoke, his voice even softer than usual.

"You aren't upset because you don't know whether or not to marry him, you're sad... because you do want to marry him, but he's just going to die."

"Does that mean you already love him, un?"

Konan's eyes widened greatly and she nodded very slowly, as if surprised at herself for knowing the answer to his question.

"But what should I do...?" she mused sadly.

"You- you should sleep on it." Hidan said firmly. He still wasn't thrilled that his sister had fallen for the kind of man who would resort to kidnap. "You'll think better tomorrow. Right guys?"

Itachi and Deidara nodded. The next moment there was a knock on the door. Zetsu and Tobi appeared with trays of food for all four of them, which they ate happily. After all, it had been quite a long day.

After dinner they chose deserts and ate them in good spirits, the food had calmed their minds and relaxed their moods. The three brothers explained how they came to the castle and where they were taken once inside. Konan even laughed along with the rest when Hidan grumpily explained his meeting with Kakuzu and his strong dislike for the "old miser."

When Deidara started explaining Sasori's art studio and the way he thought the puppet pieces were made, Konan yawned and her eyes began to droop. Itachi made the decision that it was time for bed. They left with Zetsu to lead them back to their separate rooms while Tobi helped a very sleepy Konan out of her dress.

They each found pairs of sleep clothes laid out on their beds to change in to, made of even more silk than the clothes they'd gotten to eat dinner in. Itachi wanted to go back into the library and find a nice book to read, but he soon realized he was much to tired, and fell into the soft sheets, asleep in moments.

Deidara, after changing clothes, made his way back up to the tower, expecting Sasori to be there again. Instead, it was empty. But the moment he went through the door he barely even noticed. The glass roof was still a bit wet from the rain earlier, but past the drops of water there were millions of stars shining across the vast black sky. Deidara felt like he could stare at it forever.

After some time he ended up on the bed in the corner of the room, laying on his back and looking past the glass at the expanse of space beyond the domed ceiling. He must have fallen asleep like that, because he was in that same position when Sasori finally made his way back up the tower from his second studio a floor below. The elder artist found the blond very intriguing, his petite figure was most inspirational. It made him want to paint. He hadn't painted in the longest time...

Hidan was not tired like his siblings, and as soon as he changed into his night clothes, he slipped quickly out of his room and into the underground hallway lit by torches that lines the curved walls on either sides. He glanced up and down the tunnel, muttering to himself,

"There has to be something around here."

He noticed that at the end of the hallway there was a large metal wall with tons of bolts and locks on it. He didn't know what it was but it was weird, and he went to investigate it. He stood before it for a minute, then knocked three times, but nothing happened. He tried to pull something that looked a bit like a handle, nothing happened again. He was about to quit and go find something else to do, when a voice behind him made him jump right out of his skin.

"Just as I suspected. You're here for this. Dirty thief, aren't you?"

Hidan spun around and was met with Kakuzu's stern green gaze glaring down at him for the second time that night. Hidan replied defensively, saying angrily,

"Who the hell are you calling a dirty thief? I don't give a fuck about _money_. You have some nerve, accusing me of-"

"Alright," Kakuzu stopped him, rubbing his temples like he had a headache. "I believe you, you weren't after the stuff inside the safe. Not like you'd be able to get in anyway. I didn't really think you were a thief, you know. You have to be intelligent to be a thief, something you clearly are not."

"Is that what you are, then? A thief? What a lame profession."

"I was a thief, and it takes more skill than someone like you could ever imagine. What are you doing wandering around here anyway?"

"I was bored," Hidan replied lazily, putting his hands behind his head and walking past Kakuzu down the hall. "Where's your room?"

Kakuzu followed after him slowly, watching the back of Hidan's head as he said,

"Halfway down the hall, past the fifth torch. It's right beside the guest room I'm allowing you to stay in. For free, I might add. Why do you want to know where my room is?"

"I'm... thirsty. As fuck. You have anything to drink?"

"I've only got alcohol."

"That's what I was talking about, stupid." He turned around and put a hand on his hip, smirking at Kakuzu dangerously.

"And what makes you think I'm going to share my expensive, first class wine and mead with the likes of you?"

Hidan pouted, poking out his bottom lip and widening his eyes.

"Pleeease!"

Kakuzu stared at him thoughtfully for a moment then started walking towards his room as he said briskly,

"Alright, come on."

"Yes!" Hidan whispered to himself as he followed after Kakuzu into the private room, the door closing loudly behind him, and automatically locking.

**Well, well... I wonder what's gonna happen in there? XD**

**Sorry it took three days to update, but look, a lemon might(MIGHT) be coming soon! It'll come eventually, I promise that. **

**KeikoPanda102**


	6. Story 1: Chapter 6

**Story 1: The Beauties and Their Beasts**

**Chapter 6:**

Kakuzu's room was much larger than the room Hidan had been given, about double the size, and just as sparsely decorated. On the longest wall there was a giant map of the kingdom that had each village and river labeled exactly. On the wall beside that there was a door, probably a closet. The bed looked identical to the one Hidan had in his room, but the fireplace was larger and there was a huge armchair set to the side of it.

Right beside the door was a large bar with one tall stool that Hidan promptly sat down on as soon as he entered. Kakuzu closed the door with a 'thud,' and went behind the bar, pulling a tall bottle and two glasses out. Hidan smiled childishly.

As he poured the first drink and gave it to Hidan, Kakuzu slid down his mask, revealing the stitches on his mouth. Hidan didn't even flinch, but his heart fluttered a bit in his chest. There was something really dangerous about those scars, and Hidan loved danger.

He took a big sip from the icy cold glass and smiled. This was good stuff, but he hadn't really expected anything less. Truth be told, he could get used to living nice and rich in a castle or something like this. But he would miss the outside world more than the others would. Itachi, Konan and Deidara all mostly stayed close to home and didn't socialize. Hidan was different from them. He liked to get out there and in the thick of excitement.

Barely had he set the glass back on the counter did he feel the alcohols effects. Hidan was a talkative drunk, and although he didn't know it because he never remembered the next day, a flirtatious drunk after enough alcohol.

"Kakuzu, how did you get those scars?" he asked innocently, taking another sip and staring at Kakuzu with those bright pink eyes, full of interest.

Kakuzu watched Hidan thoughtfully for a moment, then turned his back towards him. Confused, Hidan watched as Kakuzu slowly removed his shirt, sliding it down off of his tan and scarred shoulders to reveal a strong back. At this sight, Hidan nearly gasped only holding it in at the last second.

There were four masks that jutted out of his skin, they looked like they were sown onto him. The effect was really odd looking, and intimidating on Hidan's part. He'd always felt himself pretty tough, able to handle most people in a fight, but Kakuzu was obviously something else.

"I was on a heist and had stolen these four masks. They're really expensive, and rare, made from the tusks of an extinct animal. Anyway, I got out of the city with them, but if I was seen carrying them, it would be trouble. So, I asked a friend of mine to meld them to my skin, that way they would be safe. It worked fine until the scars started to spread across my body."

Hidan looked and saw that there were more and more scars all down his arms, around his wrists, across his hips.

"They're cursed. They won't come off now. And there's this."

He opened his mouth, stretching the stitches on either side. Suddenly small threads came out of his mouth, moving around like snakes until he closed his lips again. Hidan jumped back, spilling a bit of the liquid in his glass as he did.

"Woah!" he said, pointing at Kakuzu with a shocked expression on his face. "You're like, a monster or something! Damn... that's so- so- so cool!"

Kakuzu stared at him, expressionless for a moment, as Hidan moved closer to him, reaching out a hand up towards Kakuzu's face. The tips of his fingers brushed along the scars beside his lips lightly. In the next second Kakuzu grabbed his fingers in a crushing grip and glared down at him.

"Who said you could touch?"

Hidan sucked his teeth and turned away when Kakuzu released his hand. He watched out of the corner of his eyes as Kakuzu put his shirt back on, his stitch-covered muscles gleaming in the low light. Hidan felt himself get a little hard, but blamed the alcohol and ignored it by pouring himself another glass.

He walked over to the bed and and sat down softly, gulping half the drink in one go. Kakuzu watched him with those flashing green eyes then grabbed his drink and the bottle and followed Hidan to the bed, refilling both their glasses. Hidan raised a toast and smiled devilishly at Kakuzu who sipped his in silence.

After a minute Hidan spoke with an obviously slur,

"Oi, Kakakuzu, it's not fair, ight? You told me bout you, so you should know something bout me too. What do you wanna know? I'll tell you something, I don't care. I like you a lot better when you're drunk."

"I'm not drunk, and I have yet to find a moment when I like you at all, but I have a feeling I will soon..."

Before Hidan could figure out that what he said was an insult, Kakuzu went on, taking the glass from Hidan's hand and moving in closer.

"And I have already learned something about you Hidan."

"W-what?" Hidan asked nervously as Kakuzu moved even closer towards him.

"You are a serious lightweight..."

* * *

Konan awoke slowly the next morning, smiling at the sunlight that poured in through the glass doors and windows. If this experience of being kidnapped had no other results, at least she was allowed the opportunity to stay in a such a beautiful castle, and treated like royalty as well.

She hadn't even moved from beneath the covers when Tobi knocked on her bedroom door then entered, pushing a tray covered with delicious-looking breakfast snacks and a porcelain teapot with the most lovely smell coming from the steam that rose from the spout. She gladly took the small, matching cup after Tobi poured the tea and sipped it, sighing in relaxation.

It didn't last too long though, because she had barely drunk two sips when she heard loud voices coming down the hall towards her room. She sat up shaking her head, preparing herself for whatever trouble her brothers had caused so early in the morning.

Deidara flung the double doors of her room open smiling. Itachi followed after him and then came Hidan looking worse for wear. He was certainly not in a good mood this morning, and he looked like he had a bad hangover.

Itachi's expression was ambivalent as always as the three of them approached her bed and she sat up taller. Deidara was positively beaming and looked as if he were about to burst if he didn't reveal whatever it was that had him so excited that very second. He leapt onto her bed, giggling, then sat up on his hands and knees like a puppy and said in a high pitched voice,

"Guess who had sex with Kakuzu last night, un!"

He then turned and looked straight at an obviously livid Hidan, who could do nothing but stand there with his mouth hanging open. Konan looked between her three brothers with shock.

"Hidan-!"

"I did not! It's a fucking lie! Deidara you little shit, i'll get you for this!"

Deidara just stuck out his tongue and shook his head, still smiling happily, "It's _not _a lie! Zetsu told us when he brought us breakfast, un. He went into Kakuzu's room first and _Hidan was naked in his bed_!"

Konan looked a Hidan with a mixture of amusement and shock and Hidan just groaned loudly,

"That's not what happened! It's a fucking lie. I don't remember anything, so it never happened! Nothing happened!"

There was a glint in Deidara's vivid blue eye as he climbed off the bed and snuck behind his eldest brother slyly. Hidan was too busy denying to notice what Deidara was doing.

"Nothing happened, I did not fucking sleep with that assho- OUCH!"

Deidara had just slapped Hidan's butt as hard as he could. His eyes went wide as pain spread up his spine. After hitting the top of Deidara's head roughly, Hidan walked over to the corner of the room muttering to himself and rubbing the place where Deidara had hit him.

"A- and if I _did _fuck that guy, it wouldn't have been willingly! And I would have been drunk and I definitely wouldn't remember anything so- so that makes it not real- right?"

He turned to Konan pitifully. She smiled and motioned for him to come over to the bed. He laid down on his stomach(probably so he wouldn't hurt his ass again) and put his head beside her knee. She stroked a hand through his hair in a motherly way and he sighed.

"Konan, who cares about me. Did you figure out what you're going to do?"

She took a deep breath in then threw the covers off the bed and stood up proudly.

"Yes. I have an answer for him now." She turned to Tobi who was serving little muffins to Hidan and asked, "Where is he?"

Tobi instantly stiffened, looking nervous.

"Um, see, Konan I have to- to go ask Zetsu something!" he then rushed out of the room. Confused, Konan quickly got dressed and tried to wait for either Tobi or Zetsu to come back and lead her to a room where she could talk to Pain.

Unfortunately, they never came back, and she got very impatient waiting for them. After he'd finished eating, Deidara had announced that he was returning to Sasori's art room to work on something of his own. Not long after that, Konan stood up and began pacing with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"If you need to talk to him so badly, why not just go find him yourself?" Hidan said, not really paying attention because he was still grumpy about Deidara getting the better of him earlier.

Konan stopped pacing and stared at the door, taking her time to make a decision. Finally, having had enough waiting around for the two servants, she opened the door to her bedroom and stepped out into the hallway, calling back at her brothers behind her,

"Come on. It was your idea so you're coming too!"

Hidan glanced at Itachi and they followed her out into the bright hallway. She realized that she had never seen it in broad daylight like it was now. She began to wonder what the grounds of this giant castle might look like. Surely there had to be some. Then, she remembered being led in when she was first kidnapped, and the giant flower garden in front of the main entrance. She would have to go out there sometime and take another look. Flowers, especially roses, were her passion.

"Kisame's wing is down this hall, so we should keep heading to the right." Itachi said helpfully. Konan nodded and they started walking down the winding passages of the building. The walls changed as they walked from having tons of windows, to just a few, to being covered with strange pieces of art or plain gray stones. The floor was the only thing that remained the same throughout Pain's wing. It was carpeted red while Kisame's was carpeted blue. Kakuzu's lower dungeon-like tunnels had no carpets, just stone floors that matched the stone walls. Sasori's floors were mostly wood or whatever random tapestry he had left over from his 'tapestry faze.' The more Deidara learned about him, the more strange he seemed. As if he'd been alive for hundreds of years, enough time to perfect every art he could possibly desire. But that's not important right now, we'll get to Deidara and Sasori later.

The brightness had begun to eave the hallways, but the trio could see light ahead of them as they climbed a short flight of stairs. They entered a huge room- except it wasn't a room at all, it was out in the open air, completely at the whim of nature. It didn't even have a glass covering on it like Sasori's studio did, it was just open.

The hallway they were walking on was suddenly the only floor, everything else was water below them. Itachi suddenly realized that they were above the library, and this was the aquarium that served as the library's ceiling and main lighting. He hadn't realized they'd gone up so high. After explaining what it was to a shocked Hidan and Konan they started across the water on the bridge that was the floor of the previous hallway.

Itachi noticed that there was a small path that went off the main steps and down a few stairs, looking from that angle like it went directly into the water. Curious, he decided to give it a closer look. He told Hidan where he was going and slipped off the stone floor down towards the small steps.

Upon getting a closer look he realized that the stairs _did _go into the water, but they were surrounded by a circular glass wall, so they stayed perfectly dry, and whoever walked on them didn't have to swim down to see where they led.

He slowly followed this strange, beautiful tunnel down past the hundreds of fish and other seas creatures until the stairs evened out and he found himself in a room. The ceiling was glass and it was underneath, or in the middle of, the giant tank. The floor was stone, like the rest of the castle, but much smoother, like jade. It felt warm beneath Itachi's feet which he just then noticed were bare.

The room Itachi had entered was filled with tons of things. There were shelves of tools and weapons and trinkets and assorted personal effects. A nice, comfy chair sat in one corner looking very unused and out of place. There was something bulky and metal that was placed in a position of importance on the largest shelf. Sitting on a trunk at the end of the round bed was what looked like a thick paddle that was wrapped entirely in gauze. As Itachi stepped closer to get a better look at the thing, it moved just a tiny bit, and Itachi swore he heard a growl come from inside it.

Just then, the sheets on the bed, and the bed itself, started to move. Itachi heard a groan for real as Kisame slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes, growling in the direction of the strange item that had responded to Itachi's intrusion,

"What is it, Samehada? Why'd you wake me-"

It was then that he noticed Itachi. Itachi straightened up and realized that it was probably rude to simply barge into someone's room without asking their permission first.

"Ah, Kisame. I'm sorry, I didn't know this was your room. I just followed the tunnel down here. I'll leave now, I apologize."

"Wait, Itachi!" Kisame said quickly, standing up from the bed and going towards the middle Akatsuki brother. Itachi stopped and turned back around. His eyes fell to Kisame's waist then flickered back up again.

Kisame looked down and realized he wasn't wearing anything. He laughed a rough, gurgling laugh as he went over to a drawer and pulled on some pants. Itachi watched him with those dark, penetrating eyes as he dressed, unembarrassed. The thing on the end of the bed growled lightly again and Kisame saw Itachi glance over at it cautiously.

"That's just Samehada. Ignore him, he's not important. He just wants to go for a swim before he gets too dried out. Be right back." he picked up the mysterious object and carried it across his back towards the entrance of the room. He hesitated before he left and turned back, asking, in a commanding way, "Stay here?"

Itachi nodded and took a seat in the chair in the corner. He rather liked Kisame. So far, the man had done nothing to make him dislike him, besides nearly dripping water on books, but that could be forgiven.

From up the tunnel Itachi heard a splash, and then footsteps marking Kisame's return. He yawned as he came back into the room. Itachi watched him again, unabashed.

"I have something I would like to ask you, Kisame."

"Eh? Sure, go ahead."

Itachi stood from the chair and began pacing along the wall of the room, looking out into the blue of the water.

"Hidan told me that Kakuzu is under the impression that Hidan somehow belongs to him. He called him, "his." Also, Pain mentioned that the three of us were being searched for as well as our sister, but for a different reason. To appease your boredom." Itachi slowly walked away from the wall, to the center of the room, then closer to Kisame, without looking at him.

"Erm..." Kisame said nervously. He wasn't sure where this was going. Itachi went on as if he hadn't even heard him.

"If that is the case, then I just have one small question..." He locked his black eyes onto Kisame and stepped forward until Kisame was backed onto the bed, falling backwards. Itachi knelt down onto the bed as well, noticing that it was a water bed as it sloshed around beneath his hands. He tilted his head to one side as Kisame swallowed nervously and finally asked,

"Does that mean that I am yours?"

* * *

**Oooohoooo. What do you think Itachi's gonna do to Kisame now, huh? Oh, and don't worry about the KakuHidan situation. I've got a plan.**

**(why do I always post these chapters at one in the morning?)**

**HEY. Has anyone seen the new Disney movie Tangled? GO SEE IT NOW. FUCKING GET UP, GO TO THE THEATER, AND FUCKING WATCH THE MOVIE. **

**Thanks for reading! ^_^**

**KeikoPanda102**


	7. Story 1: Chapter 7

**Story 1: The Beauties and Their Beasts**

**Chapter 7:**

After leaving the strange open air room above a huge aquarium, Konan and Hidan found themselves walking down a curved hallway. There were no stairs, but it went down in a gradual spiral before evening out into a normal hall again.

"Damn, does this castle ever _end_?" Hidan complained as they walked the narrow hall that turned and twisted all over the place, never seeming to come to somewhere else.

Konan ignored him and kept walking. She didn't forget where she was heading to. She needed to tell Pain what she had decided. It was very important. Somehow she was sure they were going to the right way, so she stayed heading the same way, figuring that this was still better than waiting for Zetsu or Tobi to come get her. She'd never been very patient.

They had just turned another sharp corner when Hidan felt two strong hands cover his mouth and pull him, struggling, into a tight, dark hole in the wall. He saw a sliver of light from the hall he'd just been stolen from and then the next second the light got thinner until it disappeared all together. The hands covering his mouth were removed and he just had time to catch his breath before he felt strong, familiar lips pressed against his.

He was pushed against a wall as the kiss got deeper and he struggled feebly to get away. Finally his attacker pulled away for a moment and Hidan barely let out a moan,

"Ka... kuzu..."

In reply, Kakuzu slid his hands beneath Hidan's shirt, leaving blistering heat behind where he touched. Hidan's head was spinning and his pants felt tight. There was something really hot about being suddenly taken and forced up against a wall in the dark, having his body teased and his lips bruised from such forceful kisses. He was already kissing back, rubbing his entire body against Kakuzu's because it felt so good. Kakuzu's hand moved slyly down Hidan's back then he squeezed when he reached Hidan's ass.

Hidan had forgotten about the pain in his ass until that, but when it shot up his spine again he bit Kakuzu's lip and pushed the other man away. Though it was completely dark in the room he was glaring at where he knew the other man would be and panting angrily.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Hidan asked loudly. His voice echoed through whatever room they were inside.

"Don't act all pissed when you were enjoying it."

"I- I- I wasn't..." Hidan stuttered, glad it was dark so Kakuzu couldn't see his blush. He really hated this guy, he kept making him do stupid things. It wasn't like he'd forgotten _everything_ about last night. He had a few snippets of memory and he knew it had been consensual. In fact, he'd really liked it. And his body liked it a lot, that's why it responded so easily to Kakuzu, after just one night. But that wasn't a good thing! He didn't want to be Kakuzu's bitch, the guy was a total jerk.

"Where the hell are we anyway?" he decided it was safest to change the subject, trying to ignore the fact that only moments before he's been quite close to coming as Kakuzu pressed him against the wall.

"Come on." Kakuzu grabbed his hand in the darkness and pulled him down a very narrow passageway. After a minute Kakuzu stopped abruptly and Hidan crashed into his back. Kakuzu lit a match and quickly used it to light a lantern that was hanging on the wall. They walked another few steps down some tricky stairs with the lantern's light to guide them.

They ended up in a room Hidan hadn't seen before. It looked about the same shape and size of the dining room but with tons of skylights giving it a really bright atmosphere. There was a large fountain in the center and all around that were pools and baths, some that were sunk into the floor and others that looked just like the porcelain bathtubs in the guest bathrooms with great clawed feet. Each pool was huge, about half the size of a normal swimming pool, and filled with clear, sparkling water.

"This is the washroom." Kakuzu said, stepping over to one of the pools and turning the handle of one of the faucets that lined the walls and popped up from the floors. More water came spilling out of the tip. It smelled like flowers.

"How did we-" Hidan turned around, trying to find where they had come from. There was nothing but a black wall with a sink behind him. He turned back to Kakuzu in shock. "Where'd it go!"

"Secret passage way. They're everywhere in this castle if you know where to look." He pressed on one of the faucets and it sunk into the ground. At the same time the sink behind Hidan moved to reveal the dark passageway they'd come from. When he pulled the faucet back up and the passage vanished again.

"Wow," Hidan mumbled dumbly. Kakuzu stood again, moved directly in front of Hidan and placed both hands on the younger man's waist. He then leaned down and whispered, his breath tickling Hidan's ear,

"I hoped we could take a bath together. You've got to feel dirty after last night..."

Hidan shivered and turned away, but Kakuzu's hands stayed firm and possessive on his hips.

"I already took a bath, 'cuz I was..." Hidan remembered very clearly. After being woken up by Zetsu that morning and finding himself naked in Kakuzu's bed he'd run out of the room as fast as he could, back into the guest room he'd been given. He had felt dirty, so much so that he got right in the bath to try and clean himself. He shivered again. He hadn't really minded feeing dirty, because it had felt so good when he was being made dirty.

He getting a bit light-headed. There was something intoxicating about the thick air in the washroom. His vision was getting blurry but the rest of his senses were tingling. Kakuzu's fingers trailed just inside the waistline of his pants, and he even snapped one of the buttons open so smoothly Hidan almost didn't notice.

"N- no!" Hidan yelled, pushing away from Kakuzu suddenly. His heart was pounding heavily in his chest and he bit his lip nervously. "I can't fuck you again! I was supposed to- with Konan- We were looking for Pain and..."

"Konan's a big girl, she can take care of herself. What's the big deal, Hidan? You already belong to me." His tone had serious finality to it and his eyes were gleaming just like they had been the night before.

"I don't fucking belong to you!" Hidan replied loudly, backing against the wall because Kakuzu was advancing on him with a determined look in his eyes.

"You're body does, then." He captured Hidan between his arms and pressed him against the wall again, his mouth moving down Hidan's long neck, leaving marks in its wake. Hidan moaned and cursed and fought him weakly, but he couldn't deny he was enjoying it, just like he'd enjoyed it last night when Kakuzu had twirled his nipples between his fingers, licking them as he stripped off Hidan's pants.

"Not in broad daylight assho-" Kakuzu cut him off with a deep kiss, even deeper than the one in the dark passageway a few moments before. Hidan clenched his fists but as soon as Kakuzu moved his knee between Hidan's legs, he gave up trying to fight.

He threw his arms around Kakuzu's shoulders and kissed him back passionately, nearly knocking them into one of the pools on the ground. As Kakuzu started removing Hidan's clothes, he couldn't help but smile a little bit into the kiss.

Hidan definitely belonged to him.

* * *

Konan noticed the moment after Hidan vanished from behind her. He hadn't said a word for at least 3 minutes, she knew something was up. She turned around, surprised to find him gone. She shrugged, she'd been surprised he'd stayed longer than Itachi anyway, Hidan was easily distracted.

She continued down the corridor but it became thinning and smaller the farther she went. Something told her she was getting closer to her destination. There were less windows now, it was probably the very heart of the castle. She heard strange sounds come from the walls around her, but didn't let them frighten her away. She desperately needed to tell Pain her final decision. The longer she waited the less time they would have, she needed to tell him as soon as she could, and that meant finding him first.

The ceiling was so low now that Konan could have reached up and touched it without jumping, and the torches lining the walls were the only source of light. She could hear something, very faint, at the end of the hall.

It was darker the deeper into the hall she went, like the light from the torches was being sucked into the darkness. There was just one door at the end of the hall, it was a small door, just big enough for someone of Konan's height to walk through comfortably. Everyone else would probably have to duck. The door itself was metal, it looked a bit like the door of the vault down in Kakuzu's quarter, but with no locks, just one jutting, silver handle. The strange, indescribably noise just beyond the door wasn't much louder up close than it had been down the hallway. The door before her must be thick, and therefor keeping the sound trapped inside.

Curiosity overcame her, although she knew it was better to knock first, there was a good chance Pain was inside this mysterious room. She grabbed a hold of the handle tightly but before she could so much as flex her fingers, a freezing cold hand wrapped around his wrist.

She was so startled she dropped the door handle and spun around with a gasp. Pain was staring down at her with that same monotonous expression, but somehow she felt like she knew he was angry before he even spoke.

"Konan, what are you doing here?"

He released her arm and she put a bit of her dark blue hair behind her ear, avoiding his gaze as she replied,

"I was looking for you. I want to give you an answer."

He paused before turning to face the wall and answering her over his shoulder,

"I need to talk to you too. But you shouldn't be here, not near this room." He seemed to press his hand against the wall, and the next thing she knew it had opened up to reveal another hallway. It looked like the main hall the one right off the entrance room and up the stairs. As he pulled her through the secret passageway and into the other hall she felt as if she would never understand this castle she was in. When he closed the secret passage she asked in a soft voice,

"What was in that room, Pain?"

"It's not important now. Please, Konan, lets talk down here." He led her down the left side of the main stairs until they were standing just inside the doorway, the first time she'd ever met him, just one day before. It seemed an awfully long time away now. Pain wasn't looking at her the same way he had the day before, he seemed nervous. She frowned.

"What's wrong? I haven't even given my answer yet and you're acting like I have already chosen to leave."

"You must leave," he said abruptly.

She stepped back, affronted and confused. She must not have heard him right. "What?"

"You are to leave, now. I no longer need your services. I don't want you anymore, Konan. Leave."

Konan felt all the air leave her body at once. She couldn't speak for a good 3 minutes. Finally she clenched her fists against another lovely dress that had been laid out for her that day. She struggled to find words, but held back her tears skillfully as she said,

"I- I don't understand. Just yesterday you said I- I was the right woman to-"

"I was wrong. I've changed my mind. You really need to leave. I've already had Zetsu summon your brothers."

Just then, she heard footsteps coming from different directions, all converging on the main entrance hall in a moment. Deidara came halting in at the top of the stairs, looking down nervously at her from over the banister, Sasori quickly appearing behind him, his bulky body casting a shadow over her youngest brother.

Hidan and Kakuzu were next. Hidan was pulling a hand through his hair, trying to smooth it down. He had the same look of worry on his face as he stared down at her from the top of the stairs to the left. Both he and Kakuzu looked wet, like they'd just been taking a bath. Itachi was last, followed somewhat obediently by Kisame. Itachi's hair was a mess, flying all over the place. It matched Kisame's and he seemed a bit dazed. Itachi didn't look nervous, only cautious and concerned, his dark glare directed at Pain from the top of the right staircase.

Konan turned towards the door, her heart beating furiously in her chest. She didn't want this to be happening, but it was.

"Hidan, Itachi, Deidara, hurry up, we're leaving."

She knew without looking back that none of them had moved an inch. She flinched. She had hoped at least Hidan would make this easier, but no such luck. She was alone. Alone and confused, but she didn't want to ask, didn't want answers. They might only serve to hurt her more.

"What happened, Konan?" Itachi asked astutely.

"Nothing," she snapped. "I made my choice and we're leaving. Come on!"

Again, not one brother moved an inch.

"I thought you were going to say yes, Konan, un." Deidara said softly.

"You were wrong! I said no, so can we please _leave _now?"

"I don't want to leave, un." Deidara said this even softer, surprised at himself. His brothers both looked towards him then down at Konan.

"I'm working on a really nice piece in Sasori-danna's studio and I can't leave yet." Deidara muttered. Before Konan had time to reply Itachi spoke up too.

"I don't want to leave either," he said with determination. He looked back at Kisame then down at his sister and added, "There's a huge library here. The books are beautiful and they're free. Also, I belong to someone now. I don't think I can leave, even if I wanted to."

"You could go if you needed to-" Kisame said quickly, making sure Itachi understood that he wasn't keeping him there like a possession. Itachi just smiled then glanced at Hidan. Konan did as well, but before Hidan could figure out what to say through his blush, Kakuzu answered for him,

"Hidan doesn't want to leave either, and neither do you, Konan. Nagato, what have you done? I know this leaving business isn't her choice. Have you become even more noble overnight?"

Sasori and Kisame seemed to understand the situation then. Pain glared at Kakuzu who simply stared back, unaffected. Konan didn't understand though, and she was loosing control over her tears, and her temper the more time she spent inside the castle walls.

"Fine!" she yelled up at her brothers. "Stay then, but I can't! I'm- I'm not welcome anymore..."

All three brothers started shouting at the same time when she took a step towards the door. They grew silent once more when Kakuzu said flatly,

"He loves you, you know."

Konan turned around for the first time and looked up at him.

"What?"

"He loves you. He thinks he's being chivalrous by not making you stay and marry him, but he's an idio-"

"Kakuzu!" Pain barked, halting Kakuzu and casting an odd silence over the room. Konan turned to face him, awestruck as he stood there glaring up at his best friend with clenched fists.

"Pain, is that-?"

"I'm sorry for ever bringing you here. I thought I could do it, but then I met you and I fell in love with you at first sight and I just can't- I just couldn't live with myself for doing something so terrible to you. You've got to leave, please!"

"Since you're already going to die, is it really so bad that you can't live with yourself?" Sasori said in his strangely deep voice. Kakuzu and Kisame laughed, but this line made Konan's tears finally burst forth. She leapt into Pain's arms sobbing.

"Why did you _do_ that? I thought my heart was breaking! Oh, Pain, I love you! I had already made up my mind! I'm going to marry you, I'm going to have your children, and I'm not going to let you die! There has to be some way to save you!"

He couldn't stop himself from hugging her tight in his arms, patting the back of her head sadly.

"I love you too, you have no idea how happy you make me. I'm afraid there is no way to save me. I still think you would be better off leaving now. Please, Konan, save yourself some heartbreak later..."

"So you aren't going to tell her about the flower?" Kisame said smartly, smirking when Pain glared up at him. Konan blinked excitedly.

"What flower?" she asked.

"The mysterious flower a witch planted in our garden years ago, or so it's been told. We'll see it every now and then. It travels, you see, moves around all over the place. I don't think it stays in one place for more than one a few seconds, so it's nearly impossible to catch, let alone find."

Konan's eyes went wide. She'd never heard of such a flower. She looked up at Pain and saw that he was frowning.

"I've been looking for that damned flower for years, we all have!" he said angrily. "You know it's pointless. Don't get her hopes up like this, it's cruel! I still think you should leave me, move on with your li-"

"I will not," she said proudly,her dark eyes gleaming. "But I don't understand. How will the flower help?"

"A witch planted it, so it's probably magic. Magic enough to heal him, most likely." Kisame shrugged.

Konan's whole body felt alive with the desire to find this flower. This flower was the one thing that could make her fairy tale come true. She would find the flower, she would save her prince, and she would have her happily ever after!

She turned to Pain with determination blazing in her eyes.

"I'm going to find it," she said confidently. "I just ask one thing first."

Pain sighed, seeing that he had long lost this battle.

"And what is that?"

"Let me go inside that room. The one with the metal door. I know what's inside. It's your real body, isn't it?"

He paused for a while, betraying not a flicker of emotion. Finally he replied firmly,

"No. Instead the deal will be this; if you find the flower, then you shall go inside that room. You have three days. If you don't find the flower by then, please promise me you will leave this castle, leave me, and forget this all ever happened. Do you agree?"

She hesitated, unhappy that she had been talked out of her original deal. She was greatly curious as to what was behind that metal door, and nothing would stop her seeing the real Pain. She nodded, and the next second, the great front doors were opened wide, and Zetsu stood outside them, smiling.

"Who would like a tour of the garden?"

* * *

**So, this castle is pretty much my dream castle. I'm surprised I haven't added a room made entirely of jello yet. Seriously, my imagination of running goddamn wild in this story! **

**I like fairy tales. Especially cheesy ones. XD**

** Pleas review! Sorry for typos, but Its too late to read over it and I'm tired...**

**KeikoPanda102**


	8. Story 1: Chapter 8

**Story 1: The Beauties and Their Beasts**

**Chapter 8:**

"So what does this mysterious flower look like?"

"It's blue."

"No," Kisame said slowly, shaking his head. "I thought it was green?"

"A green flower would be impossibly stupid?" Kakuzu replied sharply. "It would just blend into the stem. I remember it being yellow."

"But a yellow flower isn't strange. That's just normal. We have hundreds of yellow flowers," Sasori added.

"I've seen it, and it was blue." Pain ended the discussion.

They were walking down the stairs from the main entrance, heading towards the garden at the front of the castle. Konan remembered seeing it when she had been brought in. It looked like it wrapped around the outside of the castle, but didn't look too wide. She hoped finding the flower wouldn't be as hard as Pain had made it seem. She wanted more than anything to save him. She felt like everything he did made her fall in love with him even more. He was selfless, trying to send her away so her pain would be less if he died. He even said he loved her too.

All of their group had decided to get a tour of the gardens once Zetsu had suggested it. He was leading them, followed by Konan and Pain, then Hidan and Kakuzu, Itachi and Kisame were after that, and lastly came Sasori and Deidara. Sasori's bulky body was slow going across the yard and Deidara walked slower to stay beside him. The procession had been very awkward before Konan asked what the flower looked like. A lot of people were avoiding other people's gazes and the mood was tense. Itachi had stumbled down one of the stairs and all of his siblings turned to stare at him with shocked eyes. Itachi was the least clumsy member of their family, practically everything he did was graceful and elegant.

They all exchanged raised eyebrows when Kisame grabbed gently onto Itachi's arm to prevent him from falling. Then, smiled spitefully when Itachi looked up blushing, and realized everyone had seen his slip-up. Hidan even snickered a bit. Only to stop snickering when Deidara glanced at him, winked, then motioned to Kakuzu's back.

Finally Zetsu stopped just beyond a huge curving field of flowers. They seemed to be organized by type, Konan noticed as she looked at them. It looked long, but not too wide. She wondered how far it went around the castle.

As everyone else was looking around at the gated entrance, she climbed up a small, grassy hill that was bare of flowers, and used this taller view to see farther into the stretching garden.

"No!" She gasped, heartbroken.

It went on forever. At least, that was the way it looked from where she was standing. Atop the small hill she saw that the garden not only curved around the castle, it widened the farther back it went. She looked down feeling rather crestfallen, thinking that she probably should have expected this.

"You see why none of us have ever found it?'

Pain said softly as he stepped up the hill and stood beside her, looking over the huge landscape of trees, bushes and trellises. Konan nodded as Pain approached her and took her hand in his.

"You do not have to do this. I realize now, I am not worthy of you. I should be ashamed of myself, having the woman I love search pointlessly for an impossible flower-"

"Nagato."

Pain looked up quickly into her eyes, surprised.

"How did you-?"

"The others have called you by that name. I assume it is your true name?"

"Yes... it is."

"Then, Nagato, listen to me very carefully. I could never live with myself if I didn't try to save you, because now that i've met you I cannot imagine living without you. You are the most worthy man i've ever met, and if I find this flower, and I _will_, it will mean that I am worthy too."

Konan's own words reassured her. Every time she looked into Nagato's strange pulsating eyes she felt like he _meant _something. He was something important. Some_one_ important. She wanted to support him in some small way, and finding that flower was the one way she could think of to do that.

She walked slowly down the hillside and into the vast fields of flowers to begin her search.

She kept reminding herself that she had _three_ days to find this flower. _Three_ days. But her nerves resurfaced every few minutes. What if she didn't find it?

At first she had been so full of confidence in her ability to find this one flower, but now that she had begun to really look, it seemed hopeless. She had not even scoured the entire garden yet, it was exceedingly huge, and as the sun began to rise higher in the sky, fatigue made her sweat and move slower among the rows and rows of flora.

It was halfway through her first day and she had not even glimpsed this mysterious blue flower. She wished knew what type of flower it was, any kind of physical markings besides it's color would have been helpful.

"Konan you don't have to try so hard. Please take a break. Tobi brought a pitcher of lemonade, why not have a glass and rest for a minute?" Pain hovered around the patches and bushes of flowers, following Konan as she searched.

She knew he was looking for the flower too, she caught him lifting his head to get a farther view of the garden a few times, but he was trying not to get his hopes up. He was merely indulging Konan in this adventure, he didn't believe she would actually find the flower.

Without looking back at him she replied as she pulled aside a huge elephant ear leaf to make sure the flower wasn't hiding somewhere beneath the greenery,

"No thank you. I'll stop when it gets dark for dinner, but I'm coming back out right afterwards."

Pain shook his head as Hidan, Itachi, and Deidara appeared around a large hedge.

"Don't bother trying to get her to quit. Once she sets her mind on something she'll follow through she dies." Hidan said laughingly as he watched Konan walk out of their range and down a pathway lined with roses.

"It's true, un." Deidara added with a sigh. "When she came across the little cabin we used to live in for the first time she pestered the owner day and night until he finally sold it to us and moved out."

"Has she always taken care of you like that?" Pain asked, increasingly interested in the Akatsuki family's back round. "What about your parents?"

Itachi and Deidara both glanced at Hidan at this question. He nodded his head then smiled,

"I'm the only one who remembers Mom besides Konan, and all I can really recall is that she was real pretty, and she had a temper on her like nobodies business! She'd hit me _so hard_ if I cursed or did somethin' bad." He laughed. "But I loved her, and I love Konan like a mother as much as a sister. She practically raised me. Our Dad... he looked like Itachi. Almost _exactly _like Itachi. One day he was there, next he was gone. Konan always says she doesn't know where they went."

"Once," Deidara interrupted meekly. "She yelled at me for asking, and told me to never ask again. So I never did, un. She's scary when she's mad. I think all ladies are, yeah."

"You're kinda the opposite," Hidan nudged his youngest brother jokingly. "You're scary when your happy!"

Itachi watched Pain carefully as the man's strange eyes moved slowly back in the direction his sister had just vanished to. Hidan and Deidara spent a few more minutes joking around and Tobi poured them each glasses of lemonade. Just as Hidan had taken a sip they heard a horrible scream from Konan's direction. All four of the men dropped their glasses and ran towards the one female among their group. They came skidding to a halt just around a small hill of pansies and saw Konan huddled and sobbing into the ground.

"What happened?" Pain asked hurriedly.

She looked up with tears in her eyes then motioned to a small hole in the green grass where it wasn't green at all, but brown like the dirt beneath it. She choked out the explanation through sobs,

"I- I saw it! I saw it right there on the ground in front of me and I thought I had it! I was so happy I just- I dove for it to pull it up but it, it shrank down as soon as I reached my hand out for it, down into the ground- and now it's gone!"

Pain bent down and placed his arm around her shoulder, letting her cry into his chest.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled to him softly, "I'm sorry I lost it I just-"

"I don't blame you, Konan, it's okay. We told you the flower was impossible to find. It was created that way, so we would never be able to catch it. It's okay, you don't have to be upset. You can stop looking for it now, it'll be alri-"

"What?" She gasped, standing up from the ground with shock on her face. "Stop looking for it? I- I never said that! It's only the first day and next time- next time i'll be ready, i'll be faster!" She flicked her blue bangs out of her face and turned her back on them, staring out at the vast garden before her with renewed energy and conviction.

"I shouldn't have gotten so excited when I saw it, I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. But now, now I know what it looks like. It'll be much easier now. I can find it again. I _will _find it again!"

She then began to march off into some hedges covered in morning glories but Deidara called after her,

"Wait, we'll help too, un!"

"No!" She replied fiercely before turning a corner and disappearing from view. "I need to do it on my own!"

Itachi, Hidan, and Deidara glanced at each other nervously. They had never seen their sister so determined about something before. Hidan _prayed_ she found this flower. He knew she wouldn't be happy ever again if she didn't.

Konan never realized how much she wanted a secure, loving family until she had the chance to really have one with Pain. Now that the idea of it was put in her head, she wouldn't be able to live without it. She knew what the flower looked like now, it was only a matter of time before she caught it.

It was blue, just like they had told her, but from just her small glance at it before it vanished, she saw that it was other colors too. It was as if someone had taken the feathers from a peacock and used them as the petals for this flower, they even shimmered the same way. The center was a metallic gold, easy enough to spot, and it was as big as her palm, maybe bigger. Something about it seemed to glow, she guessed that was the magic. When she had first started out she hadn't entire believed it was a magic flower, but now that she saw it with her own eyes, and saw it vanish right before her eyes, she knew it had to be magic. Now all she had to do was find it- and catch it.

It took her another full day before she saw it again, and this time it was gleaming down at her from up in a cheery tree amongst the little pink blossoms. Determinedly, she climbed up the tree, and as she reached for the branch that would take her close enough to grab the flower, the setting sun got in her eyes and blinded her momentarily. When her vision returned, the flower was gone.

She was much less upset this time, but panic began to thicken in her heart. It was almost two days, there was only one more left, then she would be forced to give up- although she had he doubts about whether she would be able to give up. She would probably look for this flower until the day Pain passed away, and maybe even longer after that out of grief and desperation.

She began to truly notice his deteriorating body on the first night of her search. He was pale, he looked like he wasn't breathing from time to time- he stood too still to be breathing normally. As he watched her search out in the garden on the second day he had a horrible coughing session that went on for a good 2 minutes before Kakuzu, who had some training as a doctor, was summoned to help him stop. Once he'd stopped coughing he stood up straight, his face showing no emotion, acting as if it hadn't even happened.

After loosing the flower for the second time on that second day, Konan went to speak to Pain before she headed to bed.

"Pain?" she said softly as she opened the door to his study, a round room placed behind the dining hall filled with all kinds of odd instruments and legal books Konan couldn't even try to understand.

"Yes, Konan?" he asked, looking up from a book that was about a foot thick and staring her down with those pulsating eyes of his.

"I- I have something to ask of you. A favor, please."

"Anything you wish, Konan. You know I will do anything for you, anything I am capable of."

She hesitated then gathered her courage to ask daringly,

"Can you... show me your true body?"

He looked away instantly, shutting his book and placing it on the desk with a loud, "thump!"

"We agreed... I said I wouldn't show you unless you found the flower. That way if you don't find it, it will be... easier. Easier for you."

She moved closer to him, nervously moving her lower lip piercing with her tongue, and staring up at him with hazel eyes full of sadness. She hadn't said a word but he felt himself backing away from her advances. He ended up in his large office chair as she leaned over him, a dangerous look in her eyes.

"Nagato..." she moaned, her lips only millimeters apart from his. The shorter night dress she was wearing lifted up easily revealing her long, pale legs which she placed on either side of him as she crawled into the chair on top of him. He stared back at her silently as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling her fingers through his hair. Finally she moved to kiss him, and he lifted one finger to stop her plump lips from touching his.

"I don't want to hurt you." he whispered in a soft, pained voice, as pained as his voice could muster. "If we do this, and I die, you will be hurt."

"Before she could reply, the door to the office opened, and Pain carefully removed her from his lap, addressing Zetsu who had just entered in a voice as if nothing had just happened.

"Please escort Miss Konan back to her room."

Konan threw a hurt glance back at Pain as Zetsu led her out the door, but he was already reburied in this thick law book once again.

The next morning was the morning of the third day. Konan awoke before dawn, as she had done the day before. She only allowed herself to sleep because everyone else insisted, but she would've much preferred searching for the flower all through the night. Even the sleep she did get was restless, she kept picturing the flower in her mind, searching between rows and rows of flowers in her dreams.

She stopped in the dining room to pick up some light breakfast as she had the morning before. When she opened the large doors she was surprised to find Itachi, Kisame and Kakuzu already sitting at the table enjoying warm breakfasts of their own.

"What are you all doing up so early?"

Itachi was first to reply.

"We would like to help. I know you don't want us to, but you cannot stop us."

Kisame nodded, then Kakuzu added in a bored voice,

"Hidan wants to help too, but he needs some rest today. He'll be out to help later. Deidara also mentioned something about doing something to help too but then he just went back up into Sasori's tower mumbling to himself."

Konan raised her eyebrow at the implications Kakuzu had made about what Hidan could have possibly been doing the night before to make him need so much rest. Her brothers weren't trying very hard to hide anything. Itachi and Kisame were practically eyes fucking each other from across the table.

She just nodded and went outside, going the opposite direction that she had started from the day before so she could search a new place.

By the time the sun had risen she began to grow a bit nervous. She noticed from the moment she woke up that Pain wasn't there waiting for her, nor was he out in the gardens watching over her. Tobi and Zetsu were there, just a few feet behind her, but there was no Nagato standing behind, watching her protectively with those strange eyes of his.

She realized that he was probably still thinking about what had happened the night before, she was to, but he couldn't be avoiding her just because of something like that, could he?

She tried to push the thoughts away and keep on searching. Hidan and Itachi came out into the gardens around noon. Itachi said that he'd instructed Kisame to search around the other side of the garden, to look over more room.

She was happy for their help, even though about half an hour later, Hidan mysteriously disappeared, only to be found again a little while later.

"Kakuzu!" she yelled, half frustrated, half amused, when both Hidan and Kakuzu fell out of a bush covered in kiss-marks. "Can you please not have your way with my brother for _one day_?"

"Sorry, but he keeps asking for it with this face of his. I just can't resist."

Hidan mouthed the words "help me" then smiled as she stalked off in the other direction laughing.

Itachi wasn't much better. About 2 hours after they began searching Konan lost sight of her middle brother, only to hear him whispering something on the other side of a huge hedge.

"Kisame, where are you taking me? Did you find the flower?"

"No, but I want to show you something. It's my favorite part of the garden, the only section I ever visit."

If she hadn't been so determined to find the flower, it was the last day after all, she probably would have followed them in sheer curiosity.

At noon, as she shielded her eyes from the bright sunlight pouring down on her, she kept thinking she heard her name being called from a distance. She turned around again and again for five minutes, not being able to discern where the sound was coming from. She was sure there was someone calling her though, so she climbed a tower of stairs leading up a small hill with a beautiful pavilion at the top to try and see for a greater distance. She looked around in a circle but saw no one, though the voice did get louder, and she could hear it much more clearly.

"Koooooonan, unnnn!"

Finally, recognizing her youngest brother, Deidara's voice, she looked up to where he was yelling from; a top the tallest tower in the castle, Sasori's studio tower. They had somehow opened the glass roof, and Deidara was hoisting some strange, large object out of the room and into view.

"Deidaraaaa!" she yelled back at him, wondering what he could possibly be doing, and feeling a bit nervous about having him be so high up. "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna look for the flower from the sky, Konan! I'm gonna help too, un!"

And all of the sudden, he jumped out of the tower, into the air. Konan would've started screaming if she hadn't seen what happened next. The large object Deidara had been pulling out of the tower turned out to be some sort of bird, and it was flying! While Deidara rode on it's back, it soared through the air.

Konan clutched her heart in shock and amazement, then she began to laugh. She waved at Deidara as he soared over the gardens, and saw him wave back. She heard shocked exclamations from her brothers from other parts of the garden.

"Deidara! What the hell do you think your doing you crazy-ass bastard? You're gonna get yourself killed!" Hidan yelled, playing the part of protective older brother.

Itachi was laughing. Since she had climbed up so high, she could see him, and watched as a rare smile broke his face as he sat beside Kisame on the edge of a beautiful pool of floating lilies and koi fish.

Deidara waved at each of them then turned his flying artwork somehow, swooping higher and high into the sky. Konan shook her head thinking that for how thoughtful Deidara had tried to be, he had not really meant to use the thing he made to search for the flower.

_But at least he's happy._ She thought as she watched him soar higher. _At least my brothers are happy here._

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Deidara launched himself off the back of the bird he was flying on. Fear grabbed a hold of Konan once again, and she even fell to the ground when the bird burst into a million pieces.

"Deidara!" she yelled frantically as he fell, plummeting towards the center of the garden.

All of a sudden, a metal coil wrapped itself around Deidara's waist and held him suspended in the middle of the air. Konan, shocked, followed it to see that it was Sasori's strange tail that had caught Deidara's fall. Even as she watched he was using it to pull the young blond back up into the tower, safe and sound.

Konan let her head fall back and she leaned against the side of the small wooden pavilion, closing her eyes and muttering to herself,

"These brothers are going to give me a heart attack one day."

It barely took her a minute before determination overcame her once again, and she realized that she wanted nothing to upset the newfound happiness of her family. She knew that if she weren't happy, her brothers wouldn't be either. She couldn't let that happen, and most of all, she would find the flower and save Pain so she could kiss him, and so she could have a happy ending herself.

She searched and searched all throughout the rest of the day. She swore she glimpsed the flower once or twice, but every time she thought so, it vanished, and she couldn't be sure she'd even seen it at all. Despair was beginning to clutch at her soul, but she pushed on, sure that the flower would not have been there if not to save the life of the man she loved.

It was growing dark, the sun was setting and the sky was the lovely pink and orange of dusk. Konan's sharp eyes had been furiously scouring a few rows of narcissus when she heard someone running in her direction. She looked up to see Tobi coming towards her.

"Nagato needs to see you right away Miss Konan! He said- he said he doesn't have much time left!"

**I'm pretty sure only one more chapter of this particular story, then I'm probably going to move on to A KisaIta Fairy Tale. Buuuut idk this one might be longer who knows. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**KeikoPanda102**


	9. Story 1: Chapter 9

Story 1: The Beauties and Their Beasts

Chapter 9:

"Nagato!" yelling his name down the never-ending hallways as she ran past the sunset-tinted windows, Konan felt as if she were still in the garden, searching endlessly through nowhere hoping to find an end. But not just any end, she wanted a happy end. She felt like the happy end was somewhere ahead, somewhere farther down the hall or along the path of roses, but she couldn't reach it no matter how she tried. All she saw was darkness before her, and when she rounded a corner with Zetsu following close behind, she came to a halting stop for before her was indeed darkness!

"The lamps blew out!" Zetsu said in surprise, quickly lighting the nearest one. As soon as she could see in front of her Konan began running again, only to get a few feet before Zetsu stopped her.

"Miss Konan, Master Nagato isn't in his office."

She turned back at him, her heart racing and anxious. She was upset by how calm Zetsu was acting but was too fretful herself to bother him about it. Before he even told her, she had an idea of where Nagato was, and Zetsu only called after her as she started running in that direction as fast as her many-layered dress would allow her.

"He's in his private room."

There was a secret passageway, she remembered the time she had stood in front of the large metal doors leading into Nagato's private, secret room, and how he had led her into a what seemed like a hole in the wall and the next thing she knew, she was in the main hall, where she was standing right now. She didn't have time to go the long way, over the aquarium and library and down that hallway, she needed to find the secret passage- and fast.

She stood where she remembered coming out of the secret passage and turned around to see what was nearest to it that looked secret passage-like. All she saw were the bottom stairs of the huge main staircase of the main hall. She stepped closer and finally saw it, a round knob on the bottom-most stair, hardly noticeable at all. She pulled on it and a door opened that sliced a line through the first flight of the stairs. She hurried inside and raced down the dark tunnel(it was darker than she remembered without Pain there with her) until she ran into another wall, pressing on it slightly until it opened.

She found herself in the long hallway that dead-ended at the large metal doors of Nagto's private room, the secret place he held his true body inside. She gave a nervous sniff then steeled herself and reached for the door.

She stepped back only a second later, startled, as the huge doors opened and Kakuzu practically walked into her. It took him a moment to compose himself once he saw her but then he nodded and said sternly,

"Good, you're here. He wants to see you."

"How bad is it?" she asked before she could stop herself.

"You should ask him that yourself."

Instead of opening the secret passage in the wall, Kakuzu began walking slowly down the long, winding hallway that led through almost every other part of the castle. He turned the corner and she took a deep breath, her hand clamped tight on the cold metal of the doorknob. Feeling like she was leaving the real world and entering some place unreal, she opened the door and stepped inside.

It was cold inside, as well as dark. Her mothering instincts started in when she noticed the temperature. It couldn't be good for anyone's health to be kept in the freezing cold. The walls were metal like the door. It looked like a prison. Suddenly she heard her name from the darkest corner of the room.

"Konan..."

She bit her tongue to keep from gasping. Her shock and grief would serve no purpose here. Those were feelings she would have to keep inside for now, there were so many more important things she had to focus on.

Like the true image of the man she loved, his strange position enhanced by only the thinnest shimmer of light from some chandelier far off on the other side of the plain room.

She rushed over to his side, but stopped short just before she reached him. He was held inside a strange container, she couldn't even see the bottom half of his body. He looked like he couldn't move very much, or at all, and he had sharp black rods that protruded from his back like pipes.

He looked nothing like the tall, attractive orange-haired man who had first captured her attention, but she knew it was him. Pain and Nagato, they had the same eyes. And although his body was weak, his skin pale and grotesquely colored, his eyes seemed even stronger than those in the body he'd been using. They pulsed faster and harder and Konan could see his soul inside his eyes.

"Nagato," she whispered.

"Konan I would have liked for you to never see me this way."

"Nagato you are so... you're so sick." Her voice was clenched with sorrow. She hadn't fully comprehended his sickness before now. "Why?" she sobbed. "Why couldn't I have met you when you were strong and well?"

"I was never strong, not really. That's the reason I always used that other body. Konan, please do not cry. I wanted to see you smile once more before I died."

"Please don't- don't say it that way, Nagato! You must have some time left and I- I'll find the flower! I only came to make sure you're okay and now I have to get back! I still have time! You still have time!"

"Konan, I'm not okay, and I don't have time. But you will have time... if you move on."

She looked up into his concerned eyes and finally it was just too much. There he was, sickly, dying,and worrying about her moving on, forgetting him! How could he? How could he just give up? Why didn't he have any faith? How could he leave her when they barely got to love each other, when they never even-

"No," she cried, her throat choking with sobs. "NO!'

She turned and ran from the room, ran down the hallway, ignoring the secret passage, forgetting it was even there, she ran and ran and ran until she found herself flying inside her bedroom and tossing open the wide double windowed doors that led onto the balcony, then only stopping to catch her breath on the farthest edge of the landing she could go. She crumpled when she reached the railing and wrapped her hands around the cold granite and vines that had climbed up the side of the wall to her tall balustrade. She cried at her horrid fate and for her sadness, she felt like it was her love that was dying. The love she had inside her, like it would die when Nagato died, and she would never ever see it again, she would never feel it again.

Her tears dropped on the thick vines of some trailing plant that liked to climb the sides of buildings. She didn't have the mental capacity in that moment to identify just what flower it was, but she saw it and it comforted her. Flower's had always comforted her.

As she stared down at the dark green vine and small, unopened yellow flowers she thought it seemed to move. Her pain and grief distracted momentarily, she looked at the vine closer, and sniffed, leaning over the stone rail. A tear that had rolled down her face fell off her chin and onto a petal of the yellow flower. This time she could make no mistake. The vine had moved.

Or, if moved wasn't the perfect word, perhaps the vine had pulsed. It seemed to grow in size for a moment and then shrink back down, and then it started to glow. Just faintly, and in time with the pulsing movement, but enough to make her eyes widen and to step back in case something else happened- which, amazingly enough, it did.

Though Konan couldn't see it, the glowing and pulsing increased further down the vine, along the wall the vine was attached to and down into the gardens. See, all plants in and around the castle were connected in the vast gardens, and this vine, although it had grown up and away from the rest of the flowering vines like it, was still connected by the roots that interwove all the plants. The glowing and pulsing started at the roots, unbeknownst to Konan, and went up and up until it reached the small flower bud on which Konan's tear had fallen.

She watched in rapture as the vine's glowing increased in time and brilliance. It was a like a steady beat, she could almost feel it, and it was rising and rushing up as if it were going to end in a brilliant crescendo of- something. She didn't know what, but she merely had to watch and hold her breath until the pulsing and glowing came to a peak, and the the tiny yellow bud sprung open.

Konan gasped and took a step back while leaning in even closer as light poured out from the center of the small flower, and the glowing on the vine surged up and up into the flower as a constant, blurry rate. It seemed to be pulsing so quickly the vine was glowing on it's own, and all that light went into the flower, and slowly it began to take shape.

Petals the size of her hands overlapped the dainty vine flower's petals, and then dazzling purple petals twice the size appeared over those! At the center of the flower the light continued to pour out from the pulsing vine and more petals and details of the grand, magical flower blossomed in the blink of an eye. It didn't take Konan long to realize that when she had seen the magical flower before in the garden, it hadn't been at full bloom at all! Now it was revealing all of it's secrets; every leaf that cascaded long and thin to the ground, every layer of color; dark, rich purples she didn't even know existed, brilliant forrest greens with teal blue that shined underneath the green in a certain light and then faded to darker blue near the center, and the peculiar golden hue of the middle that looked as if the very sun itself had been caught in a color and put right smack dab in the center of the flower, along with something else. This was the thing that really alerted Konan to the fact that now, the flower was in it's peak, full bloom moment, and that this probably didn't happen all too often, if it had even ever happened before.

There was a a dark, dark blue jewel resting in the very center of the magical flower, gleaming in the setting sun as the last of the vine's pulsing finally stopped, and the plant became perfectly still.

Konan understood then. Looking for the flower was not enough. You had to _need _the flower more than anything in the world and you had to have no other option, and for the magical flower to reveal it's true magic secret, you would have to give a bit of your heart to it in exchange. Her tear had called the flower to her. That special bit of water was exactly what the magical Jewel Flower needed to fully bloom, and to give its power as a gift to whomever gave it the strength to bloom in such a magnificent fashion.

Konan, taking a deep breath, took a step forward. The flower didn't move. Konan almost felt like crying again that very minute. The flower was waiting for her, the flower had appeared for her in her time of need. _Nagato was going to live! She had found the flower after all!_

She tentatively reached out and plucked the blue, almost black jewel from the center, and held it tight in her fist, clasped against her chest. She backed away and watched with awe as the moment the jewel was removed, the flower seemed to implode on itself, sucking back down into the vine much more quickly than it had appeared. Almost before she could blink twice, the giant, unique flower was gone, and the little bud on the vine closed up again, as if waiting for a nice rain to water it so it could bloom again on it's own.

Konan held the warm stone up to her lips, kissed it softly, then, smiling and crying at the same time, turned around and ran out of her room, down the hallway, calling Nagato's name, knowing that now she would be able to live a real life with him, and nothing would ever get in the way of that again.

**OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. I am soooo sorry this took so long to write. I kept going back and then stopping again and the days just passed without me realizing it and I'm just reeeeally sorry and i'll feel really bad if you guys lost interest in this story because it took so long but I reeeally will try to write the next chapter faster, as well as the chapters for the stories following this one. **

**(and don't forget, there's a lemon-maybe more than one- next chapter, so stick around!)**

**Thank you!**

**KeikoPanda102**


	10. Story 1: Chapter 10

Story 1: The Beauties and Their Beasts

Chapter 10:

It was something truly astounding, even Hidan had to admit, seeing Konan walk out of Nagato's room with him standing tall by her side. At first he had thought that something went wrong. The Nagato that he saw now didn't look like the one from before, but then he looked at his only sister's face and saw that nothing was wrong. Everything was perfect.

When he kissed her, gently, at the corner of her eye, she began to sob. Nagato tried to hold her up but she was determined to crumble to the floor. Hidan understood what this meant better than anyone, except perhaps Itachi. Konan had always had to be the strong one, she never cried. Since meeting Nagato she had already cried at least three times.

It was like the moment she met Nagato her life began, and she had to cry to make up for all those years she had wasted. She was crying mostly out of relief. This castle, Nagato, her brothers, even her brothers' lovers! They all represented security she thought she would never have. Happiness and acceptance and equality and love. It was so much love it overwhelmed her.

Hidan smiled and leaned back without thinking anything of it into Kakuzu's chest. When he felt a hand rest possessively on his hip his automatic reaction was to shake it off but then he stopped and allowed Kakuzu that moment to own him.

What did it matter anyway?

Kakuzu was offering the same things to him as Nagato was offering Konan. Not marriage or children obviously, but love and security and, most importantly for Hidan, sex. Hidan had already lost count of the amount of times he'd done it with Kakuzu. He couldn't deny it left him satisfied every time. Kakuzu even seemed to, perhaps like wasn't the word, but _fit_ Hidan. Both were a little hard to be around at times, and God knows both liked to argue. Luckily for them, using sex they could release the tension all that arguing brings with it.

Zetsu and Tobi led all eight of them, 4 beautiful guests and the 4 odd joint-owners of the large, mysterious castle out into the back garden. Now that she didn't have to obsessively search every inch of it for the flower she could really appreciate the grandness of it. It was the most beautiful garden in the world, she thought. Directly in the back there was a large, round pavilion. It was painted white with detailed designs carved all around edges. It looked even nicer against the backdrop of a setting sun as Tobi led them all up the steps and inside where a simple meal was set on two circular tables.

They ate until it was dark out and Tobi and Zetsu lit hanging paper lanterns all around the sides of the pavilion, then began to play music. Tobi's flute was a bit squeaky but Zetsu's violin was lovely enough to get Nagato to ask Konan to dance. When the tune became faster he explained that he had to rest and she gave him the gentlest of kisses as he took his seat between Kakuzu and Sasori, Kisame leaning peacefully against a white post.

Konan laughed as she pulled Hidan up from his seat and made him dance around until Deidara decided to join and pulled Itachi along with them. The four siblings danced and laughed until they couldn't breath and had to sit down.

As they sat and caught their breath on the opposite side of the pavilion as the other men, Konan noticed Itachi's gaze strongly connected to Kisame's, as well a smile playing on the edge of his lips. She laughed and nudged him with her knee until he looked around at her questioningly.

"Seems like you feel the same way about Kisame as I do about Nagato."

Itachi's face betrayed no emotions but his voice was contentedly happy when he replied.

"Kisame is very sweet, and gentle."

"Really?" Hidan asked, scratching his head. "He kinda looks like the type who would get mad easy, know what I mean?"

Itachi gently shook his head and finally let a small smile slip onto his face as he glanced over at Kisame once more (Kisame hadn't looked away) and said,

"He is very smart and… loyal. I like him."

"You sure it isn't looooove?" Hidan teased his brother.

"What about you and Kakuzu then, un?"

"What? That bastard? I don't even like him!"

"Liar, un!"

Konan laughed at her brother's back and forth and realized how glad she was that her brother's could share her new life in this castle with someone to love them each. Then she frowned, realizing that Deidara hadn't said anything about loving Sasori. She looked over at the large, odd-shaped man and felt sad. At least Kisame and Kakuzu, apart from their strange appearances, looked human. Sasori was barely a shape that any human could take, and definitely not the size. It looked to her as if at least _two_ people could fit _inside_ him.

"No really, that Kakuzu is a total asshole! He's got a temper, not all "loyal" like Itachi's precious Kisame here."

Hidan turned up his head like a snob, but Konan didn't miss the corner of his eye open a little bit to catch a glimpse of Kakuzu watching him. Hidan flushed and started muttering under his breath,

"T- though he can be okay sometimes. When we're, I mean, he's still a jerk but he's good when we're doing stuff..."

He trailed off leaving Deidara laughing at him. Seeing Deidara laugh made Konan think maybe her youngest brother was content without a romance. Why was romance so important anyways? He'd always been too in love with his "art" to think about something as trivial as love or romance. Just as she was assuring herself it would all work out, Deidara's usually exuberant face fell, his blond hair cascading over his blue eyes and dousing them in shadow.

"...I wish Sasori would, umm, do stuff with me..."

Konan's heart went out to him. So he did think of things like love (well, maybe love was too romantic a word)! She had begun to wonder if Deidara was really a teenage boy at all. The problem was Sasori. Hidan stared at Deidara like he was crazy.

"You like that big, old fat- OW!" Konan stabbed his leg with a fork to stop him from going on. He gave her a look and she motioned to Deidara. They both looked as he brought his legs up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, Itachi watching as well, as discretely as he could.

Then, he turned back to Kisame just in time to see the large man smirk at him and wink.

Coincidentally, the conversation the Akatsuki siblings had been having almost directly matched the one being had by the men on the other side of the pavilion. Kakuzu had still been trying to explain how much he _did not _love Hidan and was simply using him because his body was particularly serviceable when Kisame cleverly interrupted, directing a question at Sasori who had been sitting quietly the entire time.

"So Sasori, exactly how long do you plan on tormenting the poor kid?"

"What do you mean?" Sasori asked, the deep voice seeming to magically rise from the front of the wrong body.

"You know exactly what he means, Sasori." Nagato added, smiling playfully. It had been a long time since the four of them had been able to relax as friends when everything wasn't going to shit around them.

"It's been so long since you came out of there," Kakuzu teased, glad for a change of subject. "I barely remember what the real you looks like."

Sasori remained silent for a moment and then,

"Who says I'm ever going to come out? And what does Deidara have to do with it?"

"They won't be leaving anytime soon. You'll have to face him sooner or later. Why are you being so stubborn? Don't tell me you don't like him. You've never let anyone into your studio before."

"He came in there on his own. He's destructive and unstable! He breaks everything he lays his hands on! He wouldn't know art if it was naked in front of-"

"He's completely adorable and completely your type. And you have to know he's already in love with you as well. He already calls you 'husband,' doesn't he?"

"If you don't go show him the real you right-"

"Fine!"

Kisame, Kakuzu, and Nagato watched with accomplished smiles as Sasori's large body scraped across the center of the pavilion that had been used as a dance floor earlier on. He approached the three men and one woman on the other side and stopped abruptly in front of them. Deidara looked up from under his fringe with one blue eye shining curiously at Sasori.

They heard him clear his throat then ask in what was supposed to be an aloof tone,

"Deidara, would you like to dance?"

Deidara's eyes shot wide open and his mouth nearly dropped.

"You- you wanna dance, Danna? Can you really dance, un?"

A great sigh was heaved and it seemed to come from within Sasori's large figure. All of the sudden something very strange occurred. The entire rounded, hulking back of Sasori's body just started rising. The cloth that covered it ripped the more the body pulled up and soon fell off to reveal a giant face that looked like a terrifying mask. The mask face rose up and Sasori's body opened.

As Deidara and his siblings sat shocked in front of the odd transformation, something moved within the figure that, it was now clear to all, was not a true human body. A thin, smallish man with hair the color of blood stood up in the middle of the opened body. He fixed Deidara with a pleased smirk and a deep gaze from his hazel eyes, then offered out a hand to the astounded blond.

"I think I can manage a few steps."

The voice was the thing that broke through to Deidara in the end. The voice was different! Not a rough, gargling monsters voice. No, this was the voice of a confident, intelligent youth full of vigor and contempt. It had a horribly pleasant tone to it and just upon hearing it once, Deidara felt his entire body quake, thinking about how that voice might sound whispered huskily into his ear.

He stood shakily to his feet and let his hand slip into Sasori's small, smooth hand, and then let that hand guide him onto the dance floor. And sure enough, as soon as their dancing started, Sasori pulled him close so his breath tickled his ear when he said,

"I noticed you've been sleeping in my bed, Deidara."

Deidara couldn't stop the blush that formed on his cheeks. He'd never ever had a reason to blush before but, then again, he'd never been this close to someone who wasn't his brother or sister before either.

"You weren't sleeping there, a- and Danna's bed is very comfortable, un."

"Hm, I think I will be sleeping there tonight," he muttered softly, using his fingers to rub sensitive circles on Deidara's hand and waist. "I was wondering if you would join me?"

Deidara was seeing stars. He felt like he was spinning and he couldn't breath and he had to stop dancing and hold tightly onto Sasori as he said in a hurried, panting voice,

"Yes! Yes Danna lets go now! I want to go NOW!"

Sasori smirked and nodded his head, mesmerizing Deidara even more with his strange combination of feminine and masculine qualities.

"I do hate to keep people waiting."

And with that, he whisked Deidara out of the pavilion and onto a lamp-lit pathway back to the castle where, if all the others were just to assume, they headed straight up into the tallest tower to, erm, watch the stars in the night sky, surely. I mean, what else would they possibly be planning on doing all alone in that cramped room with just a bed to lie on?

The moment Sasori and Deidara left, everyone else seemed to simultaneously feel a shift in the tone of the party. Nagato approached Konan bashfully and bowed, offering his hand to her. She flushed and placed her hand in his. He gently pressed his lips against the back of her hand then pulled her forward and into a smooth twirl. She laughed as he continued twirling her all the way out of the pavilion and down the flower adorned pathway towards the castle entrance. It was a very romantic sight so, of course, Hidan made a face and tried looking around for Itachi so he could stick his tongue out and make his brother smile.

He looked all around the pavilion for his brother but he was nowhere to be seen. He scratched his head, sure that Itachi had been standing right beside him just a moment before. Then he looked around and realized that _everyone_ was gone, even Zetsu and Tobi, and he was alone in the pavilion- well, not entirely alone.

"Hidan."

Kakuzu appeared behind him so suddenly that Hidan got a chill when Kakuzu placed his hands on either side of his hips and whispered in his ear.

"I have something I want to show you."

After that, Hidan caught on rather quickly. He winked and looped his fingers into Kakuzu's pants, pulling him closer and smirking as he said suggestively,

"Oh yeah? Is it in your pants?"

Kakuzu rolled his eyes and pulled Hidan's hands away from the lower half of his body.

"You're always so vulgar, it's not sexy at all."

Being denied and then insulted like that put Hidan in a bad mood. He frowned and started walking away from Kakuzu, pouting unhappily to himself. Kakuzu caught his hand and pulled him back tight against his broad chest, pressing his lips to Hidan's for just a second then pulling away, leaving Hidan dazed.

"Come on, I said I wanted to show you something."

Hidan just nodded and allowed Kakuzu to pull him back into the castle and down towards his personal wing. When they past both Kakuzu's bedroom and the guest room Hidan had been using Hidan became curious as to where Kakuzu could be leading him. When he saw the large locked door of the vault he stared at Kakuzu with wide eyes.

"W- we're gonna go in there?" he asked as Kakuzu stopped in front of it and started twisting and turning nobs, and pulling a ring of keys from within his shirt pocket. Kakuzu nodded as the many locks on the door slowly began to come undone.

After a minute there was a loud "kerclunk" sound and the vault door slowly opened. Hidan looked up at Kakuzu, shocked. He knew exactly what Kakuzu meant by showing him the inside of his precious vault. He searched for Kakuzu's hand as the taller man stepped forward, inside the bright room, Hidan right after him.

"Here it is," Kakuzu sighed, sounding very happy, but also nervous. He turned to Hidan and started to say something about how much money and valuables were actually inside but the next second he found Hidan's mouth was pressing greedily onto his. Not only that, but Hidan jumped up into Kakuzu's arms, making him have to lean back against one of the solid titanium walls so they didn't fall over.

Hidan's arms were wrapped around his head and his legs around his waist. Kakuzu smiled into the kiss and slowly started rubbing Hidan's backside with the hands he was using to help hold Hidan up.

Hidan moaned in his mouth then pulled away, looking down at Kakuzu seductively.

"I love you, you greedy fucking asshole."

"I love you, you unsexy freak."

"Fuck me." Hidan replied, and he didn't have to ask twice.

Kakuzu spun around in a flash, slamming Hidan against the wall and ripping off the fragile clothes he'd been wearing. In the next second he had positioned himself at Hidan's entrance and thrust in before he even stopped to think.

"FUCK!" Hidan screamed, his fingernails digging into Kakuzu's back.

Kakuzu kissed along Hidan's neck as he started thrusting up and up, lifting Hidan's legs up and apart so he could go deeper.

"Hidan, Hidan, Hidan," he murmured against Hidan's throat over and over as he kept thrusting his hips forward, ripping Hidan apart, but he didn't care. Hidan moved his hips along with Kakuzu's thrusts and he loved how the initial pain just flowed into pleasure the more Kakuzu went inside him.

"Fuck, harder!" Hidan gasped, and Kakuzu was more than happy to oblige.

In the tallest tower of the castle, quite a ways away from the deepest caverns where Hidan was screaming his way through the night, Deidara was slowly being undressed by Sasori's delicate hands. The stars shined above them but Deidara could barely see them, he could barely see at all. The more Sasori touched him the less he could think. His vision was blurry and his breath came in gasps. He never thought sex would feel this good.

"D- Danna!" He gasped. "Wait, I- I've never done something like this before. What if I'm bad at it, un?"

Sasori smiled at him then stepped off the bed, leaving Deidara lying there, confused. Sasori searched around the cluttered studio until he found something and all of the sudden the ceiling began to move. Slowly a mirror appeared directly above the bed. Sasori motioned for Deidara to look up into it.

The young blond curiously did as he was told, and when he saw himself he gasped. His body was completely bare and starkly beautiful against the blood red, silk sheets. His waist was curved as he balled his fists in the sheets and his hair fanned out behind him in a golden halo. His face was flushed with color and looked so sensual; Deidara wondered how it could possibly still be him. His mouth curved into a sly smile when he saw his hard manhood and realized how sexy he really was.

"You could be the worst sex partner in the world but with that body you'd make anyone want you." Sasori said in a low voice that sent shivers down Deidara's spine. The next second he sat up halfway and motioned for Sasori to come back to the bed. Sasori smirked and walked closer. When he reached the bed he was surprised as Deidara grabbed his arm and threw him down onto the sheet, straddling his waist and smiling down at him with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Sasori carefully brought his hands up to Deidara's hips as the blond lowered himself onto his hardness. Throwing his head back, Deidara moved his hips all the way down so Sasori was completely inside. Sasori groaned and closed his eyes, not believing he was going to keep his true body hidden from this erotic creature who was about to ride him while screaming his name.

"Sasori-danna!" Deidara cried, rocking his hips up and down as Sasori reached the sensitive place deep inside him. A shiver flew up his spine and he dug his fingers into Sasori's chest and came with Sasori still deep within him.

As soon as he felt Deidara clench around him, Sasori flipped them over so he was on top, thrusting his hips as Deidara started screaming all over again. He pressed his hands against Deidara's and their fingers interlaced together as Sasori bucked his hips in an erotic rhythm, making Deidara come again only a few minutes later.

They kept that up until morning came and they were both completely satisfied. (Deidara looked as if he would never be able to move again, but it was a pleasant feeling).

Kisame felt like he was dreaming.

Itachi never made a single unnecessary move; every breath was taken for a reason. His voice was soft and soothing, like waves upon a shore, and his face in the dim light of Kisame's bedroom seemed ethereal, supernatural. He couldn't get enough of touching that body. Never before had he experienced anything where another human was so perfectly responsive to his touches.

"Aah, _deeper_, Kisame!"

It had to be a dream. Kisame groaned lowly as he pressed his hips in reply to Itachi's request.

Though it was only the first time they had had the chance to have sex, Kisame couldn't imagine he would ever get tired of doing it with Itachi. Itachi was clean and pure and soft, _so soft_. He felt like liquid in Kisame's hands, his skin even silkier when compared to the rough texture of Kisame's blue flesh.

For Kisame it was like sensory overload; the echoing sounds of Itachi's voice mixed with their wet skin slapping together, the feel of those delicate fingers combing through his hair, the heat of arousal pulsing through his body.

Their lovemaking was slow, sensual and lasted long into the night and even into the next morning. Kisame's room, centered in the middle of the giant tank, had no light from the sun, so no way to tell when the night was over and the next day begun.

Kisame's favorite part was how Itachi rode him; confident, with a mixture of feminine seduction and masculine passion. Itachi's favorite part was when, after it was over, Kisame laid him down, gently resting his head on a pillow and leaning down to kiss him as he softly cupped Itachi's cheek in his large, warm hand.

Kakuzu's hands were large as well, but Hidan would never in his life describe them as warm. They were as cold as ice, just like his soul.

At least, that was one of the things flowing through Hidan's mind as those same large, cold hands roughly grabbed at his bruised lips and lifted his head up. Hidan's teeth were clenched in frozen fury: fury, and unstoppable lust.

He felt like he was lost, like his body was lost to his mind, and he couldn't find it no matter how hard he tried. Each breath was effort and with every one a tiny part of his mind seemed to tell him to just stop breathing all together, it would make things so much easier…

"Are you done already? You've only come six times."

Hidan just gaped at him, his eyes widening as an intense pain shot up his spine; he would be raw the next day. He wasn't actually sure if he would _survive_ to the next day.

Kakuzu smirked, leaning in to whisper lowly into Hidan's ear,

"Yes, I said _only_."

There was a whimper and then Kakuzu began to tease Hidan's shaft mercilessly, as if he hadn't already done enough this night. He slowly slid down between Hidan's legs, which he was desperately trying to close. Kakuzu was very glad he had decided to tie Hidan up after their second round; that was when he started getting really feisty.

Though he seemed confident enough to Hidan, Kakuzu was actually rather nervous about what he was doing. Not because he lacked skill or was worried he wasn't _satisfying_ his new lover, but because he was showing his true colors for the first time since he could remember.

Kakuzu was a sex prodigy. He didn't look like it, but it was true. The problem was, not many could handle him at full force, the way he was going now towards Hidan. He usually held back when it came to his lovers, and he had been holding back the few times he and Hidan had made love before this, but because of the commitment he had decided to show Hidan earlier in the evening, he figured he may as well show Hidan his true nature sooner father than after they spent more sexual time together. He didn't want to catch him off-guard.

Kakuzu wasn't too worried about Hidan, but nervousness did touch on the edges of his mind from time to time; every gasp of Hidan's that seemed like a last gasp of breath on the precipice of death made him question himself a little bit more.

It was true, he had already made Hidan come six times, himself only coming twice, but it was only getting better the longer they went. Kakuzu was waiting for something, and whether or not Hidan could handle the full Kakuzu would be decided by whether or not this "thing" happened.

His talented tongue swept over the already deathly sensitive skin of Hidan's member. A weak curse spewed from Hidan's lips; he couldn't muster much more than that; he was already coming, his body shaking as the pressure built up inside him. But it just kept building and building and Hidan felt like he was losing his _mind_ it was so good, it was unreal. His hands involuntarily twisted and clawed at the rope that bound him to a giant golden sculpture in the very center of the safe he and Kakuzu were using as a bedroom.

As the pressure inside him built, his screams built along with it.

"Ka- Kakuzu! _Kakuzuuu!_ !"

His entire body lurched forward as if connected to Kakuzu's. The green-eyed miser watched with growing excitement, waiting for Hidan to finish. At the end of his scream his voice broke. It'd been breaking since his third climax but somehow he could still manage some truly astounding screams if pushed far enough.

As Hidan's head dropped and his lower lip twitched, along with half his body, Kakuzu traced a finger along the inside of his thigh. Though he could barely think, Hidan lifted his head to stare lustfully into Kakuzu's eyes. The elder gave him a somehow proud smile back and said,

"You just had a dry climax. How did it feel, Hidan?"

Barely had he asked the question and Hidan twisted his body, as best he could while bound, towards Kakuzu's, his eyes rolling and his tongue hanging out of his mouth to match his panting like a dog.

"Agaaaaain…" he whined pleadingly. "Fuck, Kakuzu, do it again!"

Kakuzu smirked and let loose the ropes that were tying Hidan up, allowing the rude young man to fall into his arms and onto his lips, his legs spreading as he begged for more with his body as his voice begged for the same thing. Kakuzu lifted him up and gave him exactly what he wanted, feeling much better about his choice to show Hidan his true self. Hidan had proved to be an almost perfectly match for his skills.

Now all he had to do was see how long Hidan could keep going for…

The sun rose early the next morning, much to Konan's chagrin. She had never liked the morning; dusk was preferable to dawn any day in her book. Then, an arm wound itself around her waist and her mood greatly improved.

The sun wasn't just shining on another day to remind her that she was left alone to look after her three idiot brother's. The sun was shining to remind her that today was the first day of her new life; the new life she worked so hard for. Searching for the flower had been so emotionally draining that she had a hard time believing it was really over when she used its power gem to save Nagato. The night before had been- well, the best night of her life. And when she turned around and smiled, looking into the strangely kind eyes that seemed to move her deep inside, she felt as thought this was just the beginning.

All of the Akatsuki children woke up slowly. This was mostly because a few hours after the sun had begun to rise Tobi had gone to wake up Sasori, his usual routine and on Sasori's own orders, only to be nearly tossed off of the highest tower by the very same Sasori who, in that moment, had very much not wanted to be woken.

Itachi and Kisame were actually the first to wake, though they were the last to leave Kisame's room and join the rest for breakfast because they simply enjoyed lying in each other's warmth as the sun shown down through the water and watching the many fish swim about around and above them. When they did leave, they remained in more loose, comfortable clothing, as did everyone else. They came across Deidara and Sasori (who seemed to have abandoned his puppet in exchange for causing Deidara to blush every time he caught the blond's eye) while walking down to breakfast. Konan and Nagato were already there, smiling sappily across the table from one another, though they clearly hadn't been awake long either.

Konan was so happy that when she saw her brother's she jumped up from the table and pulled them both into a spontaneous hug. Both Deidara and Itachi felt greatly touched by this; Konan hadn't hugged them in some time. She just wasn't the hugging type of person, or, at least, she hadn't been before. It seemed that Nagato was changing her- and for the better.

"Where's Hidan? Does anyone know?"

"I'm sure he's still down in the dungeons with Kakuzu. He hates waking up early more than the three of us combined," Itachi joked.

"The dungeons…" Konan mused. "I still haven't been down there. There's a lot of the castle I haven't seen."

"I'll take you down to the dungeons today if you'd like," Nagato said softly. "I can give you a full tour of the castle. After all, it is now yours as well. I can even show you the rest of the gardens- if, that is, you aren't tired of seeing them."

Konan smiled, a smile full of pure happiness and not an ounce of deception.

"I'll never tire of that garden. It's the most beautiful garden I've ever seen."

Nagato smiled back and took her hand in his, replying acquiescently, "then perhaps we should have lunch in the garden as well."

Her eyes shone and she quickly agreed and began planning a lovely picnic in the second pavilion that Nagato mentioned she hadn't seen yet, inviting the other's to join them then asking Zetsu and Tobi very politely if they would be willing to make the food and deliver it to where it needed to be.

By the time everything had been planned and everyone decided to finally put some reasonable clothes on it was well past. Konan and her brother's were really started to worry about their last sibling. No one had seen nor heard from either Hidan or Kakuzu all day.

Then, as they were all about to head out of the front doors and into the vast maze of a garden, Kakuzu appeared, wandering aimlessly up from his lower section of the castle.

"There you are," Kisame said when Kakuzu approached them, "finally decided to let Hidan out of your room then?"

Kakuzu's green eyes flashed.

"He's still in bed."

He was given a few incredulous looks but said nothing, just stood looking very content.

"I know Hidan likes to sleep in but I've never seen him sleep this late. Is he all right?" Konan asked.

Kakuzu gave a noncommittal shrug. "I may have asked too much of him; still, he'll live. He might sleep into the next night though, I'm not too certain."

Sure enough, Hidan slept through the entire night and into the next day. When he woke up he went from confused, to embarrassed, to angry faster than anyone could even comprehend. He wouldn't talk to Kakuzu for, well, a few minutes. At least until Kakuzu pushed him up against a wall and reminded him how he had begged and how much he'd wanted it the two nights prior.

Hidan's siblings found this rather amusing. In fact, they found most everything rather amusing. Nothing much seemed dark to them anymore. Though they had started out orphans, now they were together with each other and ones that they loved.

Konan often saw the magical flower appear here and there around the gardens and whenever she did she would only smile and look away, hoping to never need it's magic again.

Just like that, the four beautiful Akatsuki siblings came to love the strange, monstrous men living inside the mysterious castle.

Together, they all lived happily ever after.

End of Story One: The Beauties and Their Beasts

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**Wooooooooo! Now! Finally on to the next story! XD**

**Sorry it took me so long to finish this. Shit went crazy. But it's done now, right? XD**

**KeikoPanda102**


	11. Story 2: Chapter 1

**Akatsuki Fairy Tales: Story Two: The Little Mershark**

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Once upon a time there was a mershark who, though fearsome on the outside, inside had a very kind-hearted and loyal nature. His name was Kisame.

Kisame flicked his tail cheerfully, propelling himself faster through the crystal clear water; many colorful fish swam quickly out of his way as they saw him coming. He didn't pay them any attention. He wasn't hungry today and he'd already eaten. As a shark, Kisame was quite used to other fish avoiding him out of fear. At times it would wear on his nerves, but not today. Nothing could dampen Kisame's mood today.

He approached a lively wreckage site, surrounded by different varieties of fish enjoying their lives under the sea, frolicking about in the ocean currents. There was a giant hole where the old ship had hit a large coral on the ocean floor and Kisame swam inside, looking around impatiently. There were even more merfolks inside the sunken ship than outside, it was a bit like a bar, or a dingy club. There was a band in the corner made up of a few different fish and a few merpeople floated around in the middle of the room as if they were dancing.

Finally Kisame spotted just the creature he was looking for. He swam across the room and his best friend, Kakuzu, greeted him with a raised eyebrow. Kisame took a seat at the bar and looked back around, saying cheerfully,

"Hey, Kakuzu. I can't stay long."

"Why not?" the merman asked him unhappily, his stringy black hair flowing around his scarred face.

"Today is the second Saturday of month!" Kisame replied, smiling to reveal rows of sharp teeth that made his genuinely happy smile somewhat fearsome. Kakuzu rolled his piercing green eyes.

"How could I forget? Today is the day you go drool over that sailor on the land."

"He only comes to the dock once a month! I have to make sure I'm there on time so I don't miss anything."

"Miss any of what, exactly? Doesn't he just sit there and complain about his life?"

Kisame just laughed and ignored his friends teasing. Kakuzu would never understand.

Every month, Kisame went up to the surface and close to shore, hiding himself beneath a rickety old dock that no one ever used except for one young, and extremely beautiful (especially for a man) sailor. And once every month that sailor (whose name Kisame had learned over time was Itachi), would come to the dock and talk into the water about different things. Sometimes it would be his job, sometimes his family, but mostly he talked about his younger brother whom he seemed to find sometimes troubling, but mostly adorable and needing of protection.

"It's so cute, he's got a brother complex." Kisame had told Kakuzu one day after coming back from spying on his human crush.

"I fail to see how that's cute." Kakuzu had replied disdainfully. But Kisame would hear nothing against his lovely sailor boy. His whole month was only waiting for the day he could go to the dock to see him.

"I don't see why you don't just forget about that human and get some nice tail around here," Kakuzu eyed a very pretty mermaid who was spinning around on the dance floor seductively. "There's no shortage of hot mermaids, and its not like they would refuse you. You're a shark, they'd be too scared."

Kisame laughed a bit and shook his head.

"Don't let Hidan hear you saying that kinda stuff."

Kakuzu glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm not bound to that obnoxious idiot."

"Oh, really?" Kisame said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Kakuzu replied firmly. "He's just the only one who can handle my poison, that's all. I'm the same for him. It's not like we're engaged or anything..."

"Why would you suddenly say engaged...?" Kisame asked suspiciously. He hadn't even brought that up.

Kakuzu looked away, embarrassed. Kisame howled with laughter.

"No way! How'd he talk you into that one? I knew it, I knew it! You always say how annoying he is but deep down you _love _him!"

"At least he's one of my own species, Kisame," Kakuzu said, suddenly serious. Kisame's lively mood turned somewhat shadier as he stared impatiently at his best friend. "I mean it, Kisame. I'm just looking out for you. Give up on the sailor."

Kisame lowered his head then looked up towards the top of the room they were in. There was a large hole and he could see light from the sun diluted by the water pouring down into the wrecked ship.

"Sorry Kakuzu. I've gotta run. Tell Hidan congrats for me!"

As he swam away and out of the wrecked merpeople hang-out he heard Kakuzu call out behind him,

"Don't do anything stupid for this human, Kisame!"

With his mood slightly dampened by his best friend's disapproval, Kisame swam quickly through a familiar patch of seaweeds and across a huge crevice towards the shore. This route was very familiar to Kisame by now. He'd been coming to the shore for a long time, and to this particular dock for almost just as long.

He remembered the first time he had ever ventured to the shore. His mother had always warned him not to go, but when he became a young adult he grew rebellious, as well as curious. He knew that humans didn't like sharks, even feared them, so he made sure to be extra careful the closer he got to shallow water. Just as he was swimming underneath a rickety old dock, he smelled the most delicious thing he had ever smelt in his entire life. Hunger flooded his mind and drove him to swim quietly along the bottom of the dock, searching for the source. Dangling just over the front of the edge of the dock were two tiny feet. Kisame had licked his lips, determined to taste human for the first time, wondering why no other shark had ever told him it smelled so tasty- but then he was caught off-guard.

A sudden wave changed Kisame's angle, he was swept out from under the dock, around to the front. He quickly ducked his head under water to avoid being seen. When he looked up again, the child's feet were gone. Disappointment settled in his gut, thinking that the wave must have splashed water on the human and made him leave, but then he heard a beautiful sound.

A small child's laughter. He looked up at the dock again and saw a small, round face smiling down at the clear, blue ocean. Kisame was taken aback by the child's face. It was so angelic. Perfectly proportioned, a dainty mouth and nose, and big dark eyes with long eyelashes, and two strange lines, barely noticeable right under those deep eyes.

"Fishies!" the child had said happily, reaching a hand over the side of the dock.

"Oh, Itachi, don't lean over the side like that," a woman's voice called as she walked down the dock and picked the small boy up into her arms. "You might fall in. You don't want to be eaten by a shark now, do you?"

Kisame watched with a growing ache in his gut as she carried the small boy back down the dock, further and further away from the water that Kisame was forever to be trapped within.

From that moment on, Kisame knew he had no intention of eating that child, nor any other human for that matter. In fact, for a few days after that he didn't think he would ever eat again at all. The little human's face filled his mind. He knew he could never tell Kakuzu that he'd fallen for the child at such a young age. His friend would call him a pedophile when he already called him a humanphile for being in love with someone who was non-fish. He went back to the dock daily to check, in case that human family decided to come back.

It was three years before he ever saw them again, and he got a bit of a shock when he realized for the first time that the child he had seen was actually a boy. He'd believed Itachi to be a girl for three whole years, but upon seeing him again, a bit older and with longer hair (which, despite being longer, somehow made him more masculine), Kisame noticed instantly that he was male.

The boy he'd fallen in love with had changed a lot in just three years. His eyes were deeper than before, if it was possible, and lines beneath his eyes had lengthened. Luckily, he was still smiling, but now it was for a different reason besides just the waves and fish.

He was gently holding a tiny baby on his waist, standing at the end of the dock and speaking to the bundle of blankets tenderly. Kisame listened intently from below the dock. Every sound Itachi made went straight to his heart. The three years felt like nothing. He would wait as long as he needed to.

"Sasuke," Itachi said happily, looking out over the water. "This is the ocean. I know your going to love it, just like I do. I want to be a sailor someday, Sasuke, just like Dad. What do you think? Will you want to be one too?"

Kisame's cold heart melted at the look Itachi gave to the baby in his arms. It was so loving and pure.

"Itachi, don't stand so close to the edge with your brother. Come back here."

"Yes Mom!" He called and started walking carefully back to the shore, away from the water once more.

The next time Itachi came to the dock he was in his early teens, and Kisame knew that this time he was alone.

It had been so long since he'd last seen the love of his life, Kisame had to take in every image of Itachi he could. He swam circles around the edge of the dock, careful not to disturb the water too much so he was noticed.

Itachi had just sat with his feet dangling over the edge, still about a foot from touching the water, silent. He sat there for at least an hour before he spoke, but when he did it shocked Kisame so much he nearly caused a huge splash beneath the water.

"Sasuke's mad at me again."

Sinking a bit lower into the shallows, Kisame thought to himself, _wasn't Sasuke the name of his brother?_

Even though he believed no one was there, Itachi went on talking to the ocean- and Kisame listened.

"It's not my fault my school is far away and I never get to see him. He should be happy. I'm 15 now and home for good. Dad says it's time for me to start my training. I'm going to be a sailor like him."

There was something odd about his voice, but he didn't elaborate.

"I'm sure Sasuke will forgive me soon. He never stays mad at me long."

He sat on the edge of the sock for another ten minutes then got up and walked away. If Kisame hadn't been hooked before, he was now. There was something he just couldn't quite place about the allure of Itachi's voice, and his delicious smell that made Kisame loose his head every time he got close enough. It was as though his blood flowed through the air like it would through water. Kisame licked his lips and sunk back into the waves, diving deep, deep into the depths to try and clear his head of that smell, but nothing really worked. He knew he would go back.

Since then, Itachi had come to the dock once a month, on the second Saturday, and Kisame made sure he was always there waiting. Nothing put him in a better mood than listening to Itachi talk. Today was no different, except he was a bit late after meeting up with Kakuzu.

Itachi was already there. His legs, now long enough to dip his toes into the water, dangled over the front of the dock. Kisame had to slide beneath the water so he wasn't seen.

"Something weird is going on with Sasuke." Itachi murmured thoughtfully.

Kisame exhaled. He hadn't missed anything.

Itachi always began his fretful worrying over the antics of his (from Kisame's point of view) troublesome younger brother.

"He's been sneaking out at night and acting much more… moody. Even more than usual. Sometimes he gets this glazed look on his face like he isn't paying attention. I'm worried. I don't want to seem overprotective-"

_Too late_, thought Kisame with a silent chuckle.

"-but I think I should follow him one of these days. Just to make sure he isn't doing anything dangerous. He has reached that rebellious age, so I should make sure to be extra careful about how I go about talking to him. He gets fussy when I ask him too many questions. Sometimes I wonder what happened to my sweet little baby brother."

Itachi said the last line in humor, amused by the changes in his brother, not exasperated like Kisame thought he would be. It was one of the qualities Kisame most admired about Itachi: he was hopelessly loyal to his brother. Kisame was also very loyal to his friends, so he knew the true value of loyalty. Itachi was more devoted to Sasuke than anyone he had ever seen.

For the next hour Itachi went on about his schooling and his family. Kisame learned that Itachi was almost ready to graduate, and then he would start work on his father's sailboat.

"I haven't told anyone this," Itachi whispered softly into the ocean breeze, "but I'm not sure I _want_ to work with Father. He's… the other sailors don't seem to trust him. I've heard them talking about him behind his back." He sighed and Kisame wished he could have had a different view. As nice as Itachi's legs looked from underneath the dock, he was sure the wind billowing through that long, dark hair was a sight to see.

"I'm going to come back tomorrow."

Kisame heart rate quickened suddenly. Who was Itachi talking to? Did he know Kisame was there, listening? He would have no reason to tell the ocean that he was coming back the next day.

"I don't know why I just said that…" Itachi then muttered, seemingly shaking his head and frowning thoughtfully. "Sometimes I get this strange feeling… as though someone is listening. I always feel better once I visit this place."

The planks of wood creaked above Kisame's head as Itachi began to walk back towards the shore. Kisame swam beneath the dock as Itachi walked above, staring up through the cracks in the wood; his tail made whirlpools in the crystal clear water. His heart was still beating hard and fast in his chest- and then Itachi stopped and turned back towards the water.

"I will come back tomorrow," he whispered. If Kisame hadn't been directly beneath he wouldn't have heard it over the crash of the waves against the shore. Itachi's sweet smell was wafting down from above and Kisame's eyes fluttered. The dark-haired sailor continued on towards the sand, leaving Kisame to swim as close as he could to shore, hiding carefully beneath the dock and wishing with every bit of his being that he could follow after Itachi, claim him, and finally uncover the source of that chokingly sweet fragrance that flowed off of him, waves upon waves.

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**And there you have it, chapter one. I'm starting chapter one now so hopefully it won't be a huge gap between chapters but…. No promises, like always…**

**KeikoPanda102**


	12. Story 2: Chapter 2

**Story 2: The Little Mershark**

**Chapter 2:**

Kisame drifted among the waves, letting his body float out to sea but not yet ready to sink back down into the blue depths and return to his own world. It was a beautiful, windy day. The wind was strong by the shore, but the farther out to sea Kisame floated the stronger the wind became. He probably should have been keeping an eye out for any ships that might come across him, but he was in far too good of a mood to think about anything but the lasting smell of Itachi that still filled his head with steam.

That was one of the reasons he wanted to stay above water; he didn't want to lose that scent. Underwater, smell and taste blended together. Above water, the air carried the scent and allowed it to hover around Kisame's head, consuming him in it's airy, fresh, crisp aroma that made his mouth go dry and his heart beat fast and goosebumps rise all over his blue-tinted skin.

Itachi was beautiful. _And he's coming back tomorrow!_ Kisame thought with an excited flick of his tail. He wasn't sure if he could handle two day's straight of his beloved human and live to tell the tale. A thought struck him as though a wave appeared out of thin air and crashed into his side, knocking the wind out of him.

He was in love, and being in love was _fantastic!_

He finally dove beneath the waves and as soon as his head was submerged, began to regain his stoic composure. He was not known to be the whimsical, light-hearted fish that Itachi made him become. He was sure that others would not understand.

As soon as he had the thought, one such other appeared; Kisame's unfortunate acquaintance, Suigetsu.

"Someone's in a good mood," Suigetsu said with a toothy grin. He said it judgingly, and if it had been Kakuzu who said it, Kisame might have let it slide, but he and Sugetsu were not close enough friends for him to not feel a bubble of annoyance brew in his stomach.

Suigetsu wanted desperately to be better friends with Kisame; he practically worshipped the elder mershark. Unfortunately, Kisame could barely stand his young, spunky personality for more than ten minutes. He also knew that the only reason Suigetsu fawned over him so obsequiously was because he was the only elder, male mershark in their area of ocean. Ever since humans killed Suigetsu's father and elder brother the young mershark spent much of his time chasing after Kisame in hopes that Kisame would eventually warm up to him and somehow guide him in the ways of their kind.

This had not yet come to pass.

All Kisame felt when Suigetsu was around him was a grating sense of disdain for the general mass of his species.

But he wasn't completely cold-hearted towards the young boy; he knew that Suigetsu often went off with the wrong sort of crowd, and Kisame often tried to convince him to be more careful about his choice in friends.

This meeting was similar to most of their meetings.

"What have you been up to today?" Kisame asked, noticing that Suigetsu was much more tolerable when he was still riding the high from seeing Itachi earlier that morning.

"The usual," the young mershark shrugged, running a hand pointlessly over an algae-covered stone, filling the water with flecks of dirt. "Hanging around Orochimaru's place with Juugo and Kimimaro." He shrugged again and smiled, adding, "they're cool, but they aren't sharks, you know? So I left for a while to catch myself somethin' to eat."

"Orochimaru's place again?" Kisame scowled lightly. Orochimaru was a rather (in Kisame's opinion) vile sea-snake; he'd been banished from the main mer-city ages ago, before Kisame was even born. Kisame was surprised he wasn't dead yet. He was now settled on the far side of the mer-city, in a cave on the side of one wall that formed a vast rift valley. Strange things often appeared near that area, and it was a known hangout for the less reputable merfolk. Kisame himself had been asked to visit that area plenty of times but he always refused. Just because he was a mershark didn't mean he had to be a ruffian. Though a good amount of merpeople in the city feared him, he had made friends with others of the slightly more dangerous merfolk like Kakuzu, Hidan, Sasori, and Deidara; all of which were poisonous or dangerous in one way or another. Many of their kind frequented Orochimaru's hideout, but Kisame preferred to think of him and his friends as somehow better than them. Though he'd only met Orochimaru enough times to count on one hand, Kisame was very aware of his distaste for the- for lack of a better word –man.

"Yeah!" Suigetsu said, sounding suddenly excited, "He's doing really interesting things lately. Things you wouldn't even believe, Kisame! You should really come check it out sometime."

With a wave of his hand Kisame glanced away and replied, "Maybe some time."

Suigetsu seemed disheartened by this reply, but perked up again a moment later.

"I'm about to go and catch some dinner. You wanna come with me?"

Kisame mulled it over for a minute, but the eagerness in Suigetsu's eyes wore him out just looking at it. He didn't think he'd want to spend that much one-on-one time with the kid, no matter how good his mood was.

He quickly flicked his tail and shot forward, giving Suigetsu a pat on the head as he swam past, and lying as he called back over his shoulder,

"No thanks, I've got somewhere to be. You look out around that sea-snake, kid. I don't want anything to happen to you."

With his mind finally back below the water, Kisame decided that he needed to find something to do that didn't involve him floating along the currents in wait for the time Itachi said he would return to the dock. The realist inside him imagined that this kind of daydreamer behavior would not serve him well and would only get worse if he let it. He stopped swimming for a moment to clear his head, then took a calm look at his surroundings, not entirely sure what to do next.

He was outside of the heart of the mer-city, which was probably the reason he had come across Suigetsu. The young mershark preferred the outside, as did most of his and Kisame's kind. Many of the merpeople that inhabited the city feared and even hated their kind. Not that this wasn't to be expected considering that their kind was known to eat merpeople if they were unlucky enough to come across a hungry mershark with their blood in the water as well. At that point it became instinct for the mershark to devour them, as with a normal shark.

Kisame looked below and noticed that he was floating a ways above a vast forest of seaweed; and as it were, this particular clump of seaweed was familiar to him. If he followed along it as it increased in height, he would eventually come to an area he had visited many times. Kakuzu dwelled there, as well as Hidan, and Sasori and his mate, Deidara. Kisame stayed there often, though not enough to call it home as his friends did. Staying in one place for too long didn't suit Kisame's personality if there was no reason to stay in the first place. He mainly went where there was food, until recently, when most of his actions were determined by how they impacted his short moments with Itachi.

He sighed and was about to swim in the direction of his friends, but then changed his mind and went the other way, heading in the general direction of the shore. He wasn't much in the mood for socializing; his mind was altogether preoccupied. He wasn't much in the mood for feeding either. The water was a pleasant temperature and Itachi filled his thoughts; he was sure his friends wouldn't miss him.

Before he realized it, the time had arrived for him to head back towards the dock. There must have been a reason Itachi has proclaimed that he would return the next day and Kisame was determined to have that reason revealed to him.

He arrived early, to his slight annoyance. But, as he swam circles just beneath the worn wood of the dock he reminded himself that being early was always better than being late and risking missing any second of Itachi's beautiful voice.

_Beautiful voice…? _ He thought to himself skeptically. _Since when did I become a lovesick dolphin? Who's ever heard of a shark falling in love? With a human no less!_

A board creaked above him and those pessimistic thoughts washed from his mind like sand from the shore. He stopped swimming and settled in his usual spot: leaning casually against the left support post at the very end of the dock. It was a bit risky; Itachi would surely see him if he decided to look beneath where he sat; but he couldn't bring himself to float beside a post farther back because then he would get to experience less of Itachi, less of his scent, less of his voice, and less of a connection to him.

Though this closeness did sometimes cause Kisame a slight moral dilemma. When he had first began lusting after the human who sat above, thoughts often flickered across his mind that included grabbing a hold of those leather boots that dangled over the water and quickly pulling the person inside those boots beneath the waves to be devoured in a quick, yet satisfying, meal. Of course, Kisame never went through with any of these thoughts because he realized that though he knew Itachi would be mouthwatering, he would only get to taste him once, and then the young human would ever come back to the dock and speak in that voice of his that sent shivers coursing through Kisame's veins again.

Itachi slowly sat in his usual spot, the end of the dock. He let one leg drop over the edge and then the other. He was silent for a while, and then finally he spoke up in a monotone that Kisame had heard him use only a few times,

"I discovered the reason behind Sasuke's odd behavior."

The pause between that statement and the next was so long that Kisame wondered whether Itachi was going to elaborate at all. But, an elaboration did finally come, in a most surprising tone of voice: amusement.

"I followed him. I know I should not have, but my worry and curiosity got the better of me. I'd noticed that he was sneaking out at night a while ago and I've wanted to follow him since I first noticed, but I was trying to let Sasuke be himself. He will only grow to resent me even more if I am constantly bothering him."

It was quiet again, besides the sound of water crashing against the dock. Then, above the din of waves came the softest, most heart-wrenching sound Kisame had ever heard: Itachi had laughed. So great was his shock, this being the first time he could recall hearing Itachi laugh since he was a very small child, that Kisame nearly missed what Itachi said next.

"Sasuke is in love."

Kisame pictured Itachi sitting on the dock with an almost proud smile on his face. Itachi really only smiled when thinking about his younger brother, Kisame noticed.

"When I followed him, I found him meeting up with the, shall I say, object of his affection?"

Itachi laughed again. Kisame thought he was going to drown in that sound. It was then that he noticed the way Itachi spoke and laughed, as if he were in on some inside joke that greatly amused him. Kisame's curiosity was piqued, though he never found Itachi's younger brother as interesting as Itachi himself was.

"Not only did they meet up," Itachi continued, his mood lighter than Kisame had ever felt it before, "they behaved exactly like lovers do when they are sneaking about, doing something they shouldn't be doing. Which they are, now that I think about it."

Now Kisame's curiosity was really piqued; what could Itachi's younger brother be doing that he shouldn't be, and why would it amuse Itachi so?

"It certainly came as surprise when I saw them kiss. I'd had a hunch that romance was the reason behind Sasuke's odd behavior but I never would have guessed… My little brother never fails to amaze me. In love with another boy!"

_Aaahh,_ Kisame thought, finally understanding Itachi's amusement.

"And deeply in love, from what I saw. I didn't think Sasuke had it in him, but that boy… That boy Naruto must really be special for Sasuke to risk our father's wrath just to be with him night after night."

Kisame noticed a sharpness to Itachi's voice, appearing as suddenly as a dangerous wind.

"Father," he paused, and Kisame imagined him scowl, creasing those perfectly shaped eyebrows and turning down the corners of those pale pink lips. "Father must never find out about Sasuke's secret. I must do everything in my power to protect him."

Kisame waited, floating just below the dock, resting against the stone slab that held one pillar of the dock in place. He waited for a while, expecting Itachi to continue onto a different subject as he usually would, but the young human said nothing more until the wind picked up and he began to shiver.

"I am glad I chose to return here today. This place calms me, and I have not been feeling calm lately. I love the ocean. So much that my place of calm is near the water, even when I know I shall be spending countless days upon the water from tomorrow on. My first sailing job on Father's ship is tomorrow. I am unsure how I feel about it… The other sailors near our dock decided not to sail tomorrow; they believe the weather is about to turn for the worst. Father disagrees and I have no choice but to follow him."

Kisame scowled, feeling angry—not for the first time—at Itachi's father. Though he did not have a face to place with the descriptions, he had made some assumptions about what he may look like: different from Itachi, he liked to think Itachi looked more like his mother; firmer, burlier, less elegant than Itachi, he imagined. From Itachi's descriptions and the way his tone changed whenever he mentioned his father, Kisame had drawn the conclusion that Itachi had, at the very least, _conflicted_ feelings about the man.

Kisame felt angry now with Itachi's father because he also disagreed with his choice to send Itachi out on a ship when the weather might endanger him. He felt his heart skip a beat when the terrible thought of Itachi dying alone at sea and never returning to the dock crossed his mind. He knew that Kakuzu would tell him not to be such a pessimist.

"I have to agree with the other ship captains about this weather," Itachi murmured, looking out over the water. Kisame followed his gaze, looking towards the horizon; there was not a cloud in sight, but wind buffeted all around the dock. "It is always calmest before a storm, and this wind does not bode well, though all Father will think of it is how it will help our ship reach its destination quicker."

The boards above him creaked and groaned as Itachi stood, and Kisame sunk beneath the water. He didn't want Itachi to leave. He longed to see the human, his full body, not just his legs dangling above the water. He knew it was foolish, but he swam out in front of the dock, hoping that Itachi would not look into the water. He looked back towards the dock, but the blurry image of Itachi that he could see through the water was not enough. He rose higher, knowing full well that he was pushing his limitations. His head breeched the water and the air felt like ice on his face. Direct sunlight on his eyes blurred his vision momentarily, but when he looked towards the dock now he felt as if he were dreaming.

There stood Itachi, his hair and clothes billowing in the harsh wind. The young human brought a hand up to brush the hair from his face as he squinted off into the distant sea, a faint scowl adorning his features.

Kisame's heart was beating a mile a minute. If Itachi just looked down he would be seen, his cover blown. How would Itachi react if he did see him? Kisame refused to take a chance, though his heart fell as he lowered himself back under the water. Just as the top of his head submerged he saw, through the layer of water above, Itachi turn and look downwards, exactly in his direction.

Kisame dove under as fast as he could, but couldn't escape the feeling that Itachi had seen him in that last moment when the scowl on the young sailors face turned to an expression of curious intrigue when his eyes caught Kisame's…

* * *

"Kakuzu! Kakuzu, open up, I know you're in there!" Kisame hollered as he rapped on the porous rock that made up Kakuzu and Hidan's front door. He had raced to their house the moment Itachi was out of sight. His gills still burned from working so hard to filter air into his lungs as he swam; it didn't help that the current was always against him whenever he made the trek to the house where his best friend and his lover lived.

After a moment more knocking the light rock began to move and Kakuzu appeared in the space where it was. Though his face usually remained expressionless, Kisame could tell he was curious. He knew it was strange for him to act so desperately for anything and wished he were able to keep his cool when it came to Itachi.

The mershark swam past Kakuzu and inside the building as soon as the door opened. It was a while since he had been inside Kakuzu and Hidan's house. As he looked around he had to suppress a snide remark about Hidan's influence on Kakuzu's tastes. When the house was Kakuzu's alone it was always clean and had very few things inside it; but, now that Hidan was living with him it was filled with stacks of junk, a few of which seemed to have been recently knocked over. The water that filled the room felt as though it had recently seen a lot of movement. Kisame wondered what had been going on before he was there. A peculiar smell flowed through the water all the sudden and Kisame smirked at his best friend.

"Been having fun?"

"What do you want?" Kakuzu growled in reply.

"I don't need to ask if Hidan's here, I suppose; I need his assistance."

"Hidan's?"

Kisame nodded.

"What the hell for? He's an idiot, you know that, right?"

"Who the fuck are you calling an idiot?" came the hollered reply from a handsome, blushing merman with slicked-back silver hair and blood red eyes who glided swiftly into the main room and sent a sharp glare towards Kakuzu.

"Who do you think, idiot?"

"Fucking asshole," Hidan spat back.

Kisame rolled his eyes, thinking that the two would never tire of spouting insults at one another. He though they might once they began living together but it seemed he was incorrect. He vaguely wondered how they could stand it. Then he saw the reddish marks adorning Hidan's chest and neck and realized how the two of them managed.

"Shut up," Kakuzu said, turning away from Hidan. "Kisame needs something from you."

"I'll shut up when I wanna shut up!" He then turned to Kisame and, still scowling, asked, "What do you want?"

"Take me to the Harbor."

Hidan had been born at the Harbor, where most poisonous fish were born. Kakuzu was an exception because his family was wealthy, though they lost their money when Kakuzu was just a few years old.

Hidan didn't even seem vaguely curious about Kisame's request to go to the Harbor, but Kakuzu wouldn't be fooled.

"The Harbor? Why?"

Kisame avoided his best friends gaze but then Hidan took notice of the situation. He stopped scowling and raised an eyebrow in Kakuzu's direction. Without Kisame noticing, Kakuzu nodded and Hidan smiled slyly.

"Do you want me to take you there now?" he asked.

"Yes," Kisame replied, and headed for the door. He didn't know how far the Harbors were and he wouldn't take any chances.

"I'll meet you outside in a minute," Hidan said, and Kakuzu moved out if the way so the door was cleared. His thoughts otherwise occupied, Kisame swam out of the door to wait for Hidan. When he was gone, Hidan flicked his tail clumsily and stopped before Kakuzu. The elder merman leaned down and whispered conspiratorially into the other's ear,

"Figure out what he's up to and come tell me once you do."

Hidan nodded then headed out the door, leaving Kakuzu behind in the shadow of their dwelling. Kakuzu sighed deeply, bubbles appearing in the water in front of him. Kisame was exhausting his patience; he already had the idiot Hidan to worry about, he didn't need to worry about his best friend as well.

* * *

Kisame was glad he had chosen to act fast instead of waiting to sort out his thoughts. The harbor was farther than he imagined; he and Hidan were swimming without a break for at least 6 hours before the scenery took on a significantly differing appearance and feel. As opposed to the openness of the reef and drop-off, the Harbor was filled and busy with different fish hurrying about to find a way to feed themselves or a way to make a living. As he and Hidan swam past a group of arguing merpeople, Kisame could see how it was that Hidan came from around this area of the ocean. His speech patterns and terrible manners were similar to those of the fish that swam busily about their day, sparing only half a glance towards Kisame and his guide.

The rules seemed to be stricter as well, which surprised Kisame. He had always thought no type of policing could outdo that inside the very heart of the capital city, but when he looked around along the Harbors it became clear that he was wrong. No one could go anywhere without running into a hammerhead, the assumed authority in the area. A few times one such mershark began to approach he and Hidan, only to timidly retreat once he noticed Kisame's great white bulk.

"We're getting close to the main harbor," Hidan said as the current that had been slowing them down since they began their journey finally lessened.

Kisame nodded, and, noticing the awkward silence and his growing curiosity about this area and Hidan's relation to it, asked,

"Why did you decide to leave the Harbors, anyway?"

"I didn't," Hidan replied. He seemed tired and annoyed, but not at Kisame. Then he seemed to recall something and he smiled as he thought about it.

"I was kicked out. They don't like poison fish here—"

"But I thought most poison fish were born here?"

"We are, but that doesn't mean those asshole shark officers (no offense) like us. They treat us like shit. Eh, they kinda treat everyone like shit—but poison fish especially."

"They're probably just scared of you. They don't seem like the bravest bunch of groupers I've ever seen. What do they have to do with you being kicked out?"

"I mighta killed a few of them, and they don't take too kindly to that kinda stuff, touchy motherfuckers. I was still pretty young and none 'a my family cared enough to stand up for me, so I just left."

"… Are you even allowed to be back here after that?"

"Nah, but I come back all the time. There may be a lot of those hammerhead dickweeds, but their organization is shit. No one even knows who I am."

"Hm," Kisame replied, impressed with Hidan's daring. The walls of coral and rock that set up the architecture of the Harbors became more clustered, and Kisame noticed that they were rising; the water becoming warmer as they rose out of the depths. Kisame was about to ask just how close they were when Hidan flicked his tail and ascended over a jutting rock, some patches of which, Kisame noted, even poked out of the sea. The mershark adjusted his tail and gave it a flick to follow Hidan. In a minute he was atop the bit of rock Hidan had swam over, and just when he noticed that the rock completely dropped off as soon as it reached a peak, he felt Hidan's arm swing across his chest, stopping him before he went any farther.

"Woah!" Hidan yelled, as Kisame's bulk nearly pulled him over into the dark water in front of him. "Hold it right there!"

Kisame stopped and Hidan swept his hand in the direction of the blue before them.

"Welcome to the Harbors!"

Kisame frowned, then followed Hidan's hand and squinted into the water that seemed not to go anywhere until he finally noticed the shapes that bobbed about a thousand feet into the distance.

"The Harbor!" Kisame notes happily.

"Yeah, you see it? Good," Hidan remarks, placing a hand on Kisame's shoulder. "This is as far as I go, 'cuz that big stretch of water you see there- full 'a poison fish. You should be fine, but they never liked me- I killed a good dozen of those asshole like the hammerheads."

"Thanks for bringing me here, Hidan," Kisame replied gruffly, keen on getting to the boats as soon as he could so he would have more time to search for the right one. He was just beginning to swim away when Hidan's hand clamped onto his shoulder and he turned back with a raised eyebrow. Hidan sighed, and seemed nervous, then said,

"Look, I know it's not my business and I'd be pissed if I were in your shoes and some asswipe was tryin' to get info outta me… but Kakuzu'll be mad if I don't have anything to tell him when I get back. Why'd you want to come to the Harbor, Kisame?"

Kisame mulled over his reply before deciding that honesty was easier than bothering to come up with some obvious lie. He sighed and pointed back to the ships that were docked near the shore off in the distance.

"Somewhere, on one of those ships, is the love of my life. He might be in danger, so I came here to make sure he isn't hurt. Kakuzu might think I'm being an idiot, but you just tell him that I'm not doing anything he wouldn't do for you!"

He gave Hidan a wink and swam away, chuckling at the bemused look on Hidan's face. There also seemed to be a hint of a blush adorning those pale cheeks at his remark, but Kisame was too focused on the blue expanse before him to think too deeply about it. After swimming about five minutes, Kisame turned back around to make sure Hidan was gone, and saw only the tip of the gutting rock-face that tapered out into nothingness below. He nodded to himself and continued swimming.

Now all that was left was to find the ship his beloved Itachi would be on.

He knew from listening to years of Itachi talking about his and his family's life that the main Uchiha ship was called The Red Fan, and it's design resembled the name. Itachi had once spent an entire afternoon, the afternoon after his first sailing lesson with his father, describing the ship.

"_The Red Fan is the most beautiful ship at the Harbors!" _The, then young, Uchiha exclaimed excitedly. "_The main body of the ship is made of dark alder with a black stain, and the mast is painted white to contrast the body and the bright, bright red sails. The Red Fan is the only ship in the Harbor with red sails. Father is very proud of it." _

Kisame was very grateful he had been paying such close attention to this description now, as if would most definitely come in handy as he attempted to locate The Red Fan before it set sail in what he could only guess would be a few short hours. It had taken him longer to reach the Harbors than he'd expected and now he had to rush if he had any hope of finding Itachi's ship before it left for the long journey.

He abandoned the idea of searching beneath the water as soon as he reached the first ship. It was more difficult than he thought to determine the shade or color of a ship when it was submerged in water. He knew he would have to rise to the surface if he stood any chance of seeing the distinct features of Itachi's ship.

The only problem was figuring out _where_ he should breech the surface. It had to be somewhere he wasn't likely to be spotted, but he wanted to be as close to the ships as possible. After a bit of comparing a few possible locations, he decided to sidle up closely to the side of one of the ships—in between two closely docked ships if possible—and carefully slide up between them. After a few minutes pacing beneath about ten of the closest-docked ships, he began to rise—very slowly and very carefully.

The water warmed as he rose, though not as much as he expected, and that was when he realized it must _just_ be morning. The light pouring through the spaces between ships was dim, which was another clue. His spirits rose then fell as he thought about the consequences of the nearly morning. On the downside, sailors usually liked to leave early in the morning, which would mean—depending on how early it actually was—that Kisame had even less time than he originally thought. On the bright side, the early morning and the sheer number of ships in the dock gave Kisame hope that, at the very least, Itachi's ship probably hadn't left yet.

Kisame worried and hoped both of these things, along with the worry about whether he would even be able to find The Red Fan among all the ships in the Harbor in time, as he flicked his tail and rose to the surface of the water between two massive ships. He was just beginning to wonder how he would go about searching for the right ship when his face quietly broke the surface and he felt cold, crisp air fill his gills.

His eyes and rest of his body began adjusting to the air, and he leaned against the crustacean-covered side of one of the ships he'd risen between. He took a deep breath of salty, sea air and instantly regretted that decision. He'd never smelt so many humans so close before—they were revolting. He became infinitely glad Itachi did not have the same foul odor then realized that if he did, he would most likely not have fallen in love with him.

Then, just as he was thinking about the flowery, gentle fragrance that Itachi always seemed to produce—the wind shifted ever so slightly and that very scent tickled his nose, making his spin about in the water like a mad fish. At first he thought he had just imagined it—being that he had just been thinking about such a scent—but then it became stronger and he knew that, not only was it real—it was close by!

Which could mean only one thing: Itachi was close by.

He looked up to begin searching among the many ships docked in the Harbor, and at once saw blaring red billowing above him. For the first time, he noticed that beneath the many sea creatures and layers of muck that coated the underside of the ship he was leaning against—it was painted black.

Kisame had only one word to describe this: fate.

* * *

**Chapter two done! On to chapter three! This story is actually turning out to be a lot longer than I had planned but oh well! I'm trying to make my writing longer anyway so this is helpful to me.**

**P.S. this wasn't edited sooooooooo... yeah. **

**Thanks for reading! **


	13. Story 2: Chapter 3

**Story 2: The Little Mershark**

**Chapter 3:**

The sun was beginning to rise in earnest when Kisame finally heard the voice that would confirm he had found the right ship.

"Father, are you still determined to make this voyage?" Itachi said, and earnest tone of worry in his voice. "Shisui has been reading the water and he says-"

"Shisui knows better than to question my judgment. I know what I am doing, Itachi. Go help the others load the last of the cargo. We are already behind schedule."

Just hearing his voice makes Kisame sure this journey was worth it. He wonders why he never thought of doing this before then remembers how Kakuzu would patronize him endlessly for going this far just for some meaningless human. But Itachi wasn't meaningless—not to Kisame.

It was not long after overhearing Itachi's conversation with his father that Kisame heard the elder Uchiha's voice ring out over the side of the ship, signaling that it was almost time for them to depart. He watched as the last of the crew boarded the ship then raised the anchor and began slowly drifting from the docks and out to sea.

Kisame swam after the ship; his feelings as confused and conflicted as the waves churning inconsistently around him. He was very glad he thought to follow Itachi on this voyage. Something about it just screamed that it was the right idea, the right thing to do. On the other hand, the voyage itself and the danger it posed to Itachi made Kisame both worried for Itachi's safety and angry with Itachi's father for deciding to go out to sea when there were many signs showing that doing such was an altogether bad idea.

Swimming after the ship proved far more difficult than Kisame had imagined—but only in the beginning. The first few hours of the voyage led him along the shore until the Captain, Itachi's father, found the right coordinates to set them on the right track. As soon as the land left his sight, Kisame found the ship easier to follow, the water smoother, and the air much warmer than it had been at the docks.

This deepened Kisame's worry, for he could feel the cold air from the shore pushing at his back and cradling the red sails of the ship as it steered into the warmer air—a confrontation between such temperatures on the open seas could prove deadly if you _weren't_ lucky.

And they would need to be very lucky. Being part fish, Kisame had innate senses about the temper of the water—and the water didn't seem to be in a very good mood.

He scanned the surface and saw nothing but flat ocean stretching on for miles, but as soon as he dove under he could feel a bubbling current of anticipation of something that made him want to take Itachi away from that ship and his father and to someplace safe.

Unfortunately, all Kisame could do was continue swimming after the ship as wafts of air carried Itachi's scent back to him over the splashing waves.

He followed The Red Fan throughout the day and the weather took neither a turn for better or worse, but Kisame was still not appeased. As the sun began to set and the stars came out, shining vibrantly in the black sky that seemed to never end, The Red Fan slowed so that the captain and his navigator could use the stars positions to verify that they were on the right track. Kisame was fairly grateful for this. Though he wasn't exactly tired—he still had enough energy to carry him for another week or so—a rest was nice. He took to lazily flicking his tail and circling the ship. The round, circular motions were calming and very enjoyable. Swimming in a circular pattern is a habit present in most sharks. Something about their minds find delight in it, and Kisame was no exception. As The Red Fan drifted slowly through the black water reflecting the entire Milky Way he dove beneath the ship, circling underwater before quietly returning to the open air—just in time to hear Itachi's name being spoken from the deck of the ship.

"Itachi!" the voice called out light-heatedly. "What are you doing looking off into the distance so glumly? Come join the rest of us by the fire. Have a laugh. Have a drink."

Kisame's heartbeat quickened and he glanced up at the edge of the deck just in time to see a black ponytail flit out of sight. There were a few sounds of surprise and Kisame guessed that Itachi had chosen to take up this person's offer because the next moment it was Itachi's voice that was drifting over the side of the ship and down to Kisame's waiting ears.

"Asuma," he began in the monotone he slipped into whenever he wasn't at his special dock. "What do you know about Merpeople?"

A few voices let out curious or intrigued remarks in response to this question but Kisame felt his heart skip a beat. He barely heard this mysterious Asuma's reply when it came:

"Merpeople, huh? As a sailor it's impossible not to know of them, and even harder not to believe in them just a little. I haven't met a sailor alive who's never seen one—or at least claims he's seen one." A pause. "There isn't much to know about them, of course. Damn near impossible to find. They're magic, most of them. Or poisonous. Same difference, really, because the poison they have'll make them seem like magic. You start seeing things and… feeling things—"

"You sound like you've met one," Itachi muttered lowly.

Asuma's reply was softer than Itachi's question and came filled with memory and emotion. Kisame could practically see it as Asuma described it:

"Ay, and she was definitely poisonous. I could tell by her eyes—bright red. She had a flashing red tail to match and pitch-black hair that swirled around her as she floated in the water. This wasn't too long ago, mind you. I was just twenty when it happened. See, I don't usually like to go swimming. I see enough of the ocean as it is; but, it was hot that day—blistering—and the water looked so cool.

"I found a lagoon, a nice deep pool, shaded and secluded, a good distance from the village. I dove in, only to find that it was much deeper than I originally though it would be—and that's when I saw her.

"She didn't give me a second to think before she was on me, eyes flashing. She was smiling though I couldn't see it. I only realized it when I felt the corners of her red lips turn up as she kissed me. After that, all I can remember are strange poison dreams of us dancing through the water together. When I woke up I was nearly drowning and she was long gone."

It was very quiet on the deck for a moment, all Kisame could hear were the waves crashing against the side of the ship he was pressed against. Finally, a long whistle broke the silence and a few of the men who had also been listening to Asuma's story laughed. A slight argument broke out amongst those who believed strongly in Asuma's story and those who doubted. Kisame could tell that all those who doubted were the younger sailors. The elders each seemed to have a story about a time they swear they saw or interacted with a mermaid. It quieted down again after a few minutes and Asuma spoke again, directing a question towards Itachi.

"Not that I mind, Itachi, but I'm curious about why you asked that question. You don't seem the type to be interested in merpeople or fairytales."

Itachi paused before he replied in a voice that seemed, to Kisame, to be very distant, "I though I saw one the other day, that's all."

Just as Kisame thought frantically, _he _did _see me the other day! I was careless! _Itachi added as an afterthought,

"But the tail looked more like a shark's than a fish's…"

"Then what you saw was a mershark. You had better be careful."

This was a new voice. To Kisame and also, it seemed, to the crew on the deck. Asuma appeared happy this newcomer was joining them though, as he said enthusiastically,

"Kakashi! Finally decided to join the party!"

"Sorry I'm late. I was trying to make sure we actually arrived at the correct destination."

It seemed Asuma was going to say something in reply, but the next voice Kisame heard was Itachi's.

"What did you mean about being careful? Are there such things as mersharks?"

"As sure as merpeople are real, mersharks are as well. Sure, there isn't as much lore on them as on beautiful mermaids, but the myths that focus solely on mersharks are very specific in their descriptions."

Kakashi seemed to be purposefully taunting Itachi with his words. He was obviously leaving out the most important bit of information—the bit that he found clearly amusing. A few of the elder sailors who knew to what he was referring chuckled lightly.

"What do their descriptions say?" Itachi gave not a glimmer of annoyance or even much thought through his tone. Kakashi answered anyway, as more of the sailors started in laughing.

"They say that male mersharks are best known for seducing human men. They never attack women and once they have their way with their male victim, he's left to drown in the middle of the ocean.

"You know," Kakashi said in a fake thoughtful tone. "I actually thought I noticed a shark swimming after the ship this morning. I didn't get a good enough glance but it _could be _a mershark. Better watch out, Itachi. It could be after you."

Kisame and, it seemed, everyone else on the deck held their breath's waiting for Itachi's reply. Kisame felt as though he couldn't think. Finally, over the side of the ship came a quiet,

"Hn."

The crew laughed, but Kisame was appalled. Not only had he let Itachi see him, he was seen following the ship by some random sailor. He dove beneath the sea to clear his head.

The myth about male mersharks seducing men was nothing new to Kisame. He'd heard it many times—and knew exactly where the myth came from.

Most merpeople did. The story wasn't anything secret; everyone liked to give their personal opinion about it whenever it came up in conversation.

The reason humans thought male mersharks preyed on men was because in the past one did. His name was Zabuza The Demon and he lived almost half a century ago. Kisame had just been born when everyone heard about Zabuza The Demon's demise, but it was a few years after that—once Kisame was old enough to understand—that he first heard of the reason for this great mershark's tragic end.

Even before he preyed on a human he was known as a demon—if only for his sheer size and ferocity. Kisame would seem like piranha next to Zabuza. He was wanted in more than one area for murder of merpeople of all kinds and because of it, took to hunting and living closer to the shores than most. That was probably where he met the young man he eventually stole from the land, dragged out to the middle of the ocean, then presumably killed, only to die himself a few moments later of mysterious causes.

Thinking about the story now, Kisame faintly wondered whether Zabuza was in love with this human boy that he took from the land. There were a few variations of the myth that seemed to suggest that. The same variations that have the young human, an orphan whose name was Haku, go willingly out to sea with Zabuza, knowing full well that he would most likely die. In that version of the story, Zabuza's death comes about of his own volition. Though not the most popular version of the story (and clearly not the version the crew on the ship above were privy to), it was always the version Kisame preferred above all the others.

Now that he knew that Zabuza's story had created a myth even humans knew, Kisame hoped more than ever that his favorite version of the story was the one that was ultimately true. At least a love story would be better than Zabuza actually taking a young boy from the land and having his way with him out at sea before ultimately leaving him to die. Kisame groaned lowly to himself when he thought about how this myth made him look in all human's—and most importantly, Itachi's—eyes.

Was he trying to seduce Itachi and have his way with him? Though it was only a myth about one mershark in particular, the humans seemed to think it referred to all male mersharks, which would include Kisame.

He didn't think he wanted to have his way with Itachi.

Then he remembered Itachi's scent, and the exact color of his skin, those two eyes, as dark as the deepest valleys of the ocean, and that voice; if only Kisame could hear that voice calling out his name. He licked his lips and could do nothing else for the rest of the evening but frantically circle the ship, thinking of nothing but the fact that Itachi had _seen _him. Maybe it was time for him to stop hiding in the shadows underneath the dock…

* * *

The rest of the night passed quietly as the crew made their way to the barracks to sleep. The most interesting thing to happen was when Itachi leaned over the side of the ship for about fifteen minutes, staring at nothing but the wood of the ship and the waves Kisame was sure it was too dark to see properly. Without a word, the young Uchiha turned from the railing of the ship and presumably went down into the barracks to sleep. He was the last one to do such, at least that was what Kisame assumed because when he had been standing there the deck was completely silent.

So distracted was Kisame by the turn of the conversation that evening, he didn't even notice the slight shifts in the weather; shifts he most certainly would have noticed if he were not lost in thought about more abstract things.

By morning his head cleared enough so he began to notice. The sun rose behind thick, dark clouds that filled the sky and turned the rapidly churning sea a sickly green that made even Kisame's stomach churn—though mostly out of fear. Not fear for his own safety; fear for Itachi's.

The crew aboard The Red Fan woke to a similar fear. The shouting started just before sunrise, just as the wind picked up the sails and Kisame had to begin racing after the ship as it cruised forward even closer to the menacing weather ahead of them.

"Wake up! Everybody on deck! Now!"

Kisame recognized Fugaku Uchiha's voice. The captain would, of course, wake his crew and begin preparations for what all sailors knew would be a rough—if not deadly—ride.

"Kakashi, Take the wheel! Shisui, you gather men to fortify the sails!"

"Yes, Captain!" A surprisingly gentle voice, Kisame assumed it belonged to Shisui, replied to Fugaku and then took to yelling names and orders over towards the opposite side of the ship.

"Kagami! Setsuna! Hikaku! Tie up the sails before the wind hits! Hurry!" Though his voice was full of authority, it seemed strange for him to be yelling when a more gentle tone would definitely suit him better.

"Itachi!" Fugaku called, drawing Kisame's attention away from Shisui. "Get up to the crow's nest and tell me how bad it is."

"Yes, Sir," Itachi replied. Kisame swam a bit farther from the ship so he could watch Itachi climb high onto the mast. It only took the young Uchiha a moment to reach the top. Kisame thought he seemed to fit up there, his long black hair billowing in the wind, making it look as though real crows were fluttering about around his head. As soon as he got his bearings he began describing in epic detail the cloud patterns he could see in the distance. Kisame saw Fugaku curse then run to the wheel of the ship and take over for Kakashi, calling back up to Itachi as he went,

"Stay there and keep me informed about the storms movements!"

"Yes, Sir," Itachi replied again, his eyes trained perfectly on the clouds in the distance.

Only they weren't so much in the distance anymore. Every moment they got closer and closer. Kisame could see lighting already dipping almost into the sea and he shivered. If that lightning struck the ship, the first place hit would be the mast. The crow's nest. Itachi.

Kisame wanted to _scream_ at Itachi. Tell him to get down, get down and go deep inside the ship and hide, protect himself until the storm subsided, but he knew he couldn't do anything but watch and pray.

Cold wind barraged the ship and though it would be easier for him to wait out the storm far beneath the waves, Kisame couldn't bear to save himself when Itachi was in such eminent danger. Rain started to pour. As calm as the weather was the day before, it was probably more than double as rough now that the storm caught up with them.

Kisame _knew_ the storm was coming! And so had Itachi! He remembered hearing him ask his father to postpone the mission because Shisui had read the waves and seen the bad weather as well. Why hadn't Fugaku listened!

Kisame promised himself that if Itachi were to die because of his foolish father's stubbornness, he would find a way to very violently _eat_ the man.

The rain and wind both picked up immensely in the next ten minutes and the crew was still running around the ship, checking and double-checking that everything was as secure as they could make it. Itachi called down to his father every few minutes with updates on what he could see but Fugaku never ordered him to come down from the dangerous crow's nest. Until, finally, lightning crashed about a mile from the ship—far too close for comfort.

"Itachi! Come down from there and help Asuma tie down these barrels!"

Kisame saw Itachi nod and just as he was about to climb out of the nest, the waves crested and tipped the ship nearly horizontal. Kisame watched with horrified eyes as Itachi held onto the railing of the crow's nest for dear life. After this first attack of the waves, the water did not give the ship a second to settle. The harsh waves rocked it back and forth, sending untied barrels over the side and into the sea. Shisui sent half of the men down into the relative safety inside the ship, looked up desperately for a way to help Itachi, then ran to Fugaku's side to help him and Kakashi wrestle with the wheel as it was conquered by the wave's overpowering might.

Lighting struck again—closer this time—and the rumble of the thunder was louder even than the crashing of the water again the side of the ship. Bits of the railing began to break off as the water chipped away at them. Fugaku and Shisui turned their attention to Itachi, still trapped in the crow's nest, unable to try and climb down for fear of falling onto the hard deck. Kisame had never taken his eyes _off _Itachi and with every pulse of a wave his panic just grew. If Itachi fell, there was a good chance he would be dead on contact.

Another strike of lighting. Fugaku called something to Itachi and he nodded as he began climbing over the side of the crow's nest carefully.

"No," moaned Kisame. This was a bad idea. But he knew why Fugaku ordered it. The lighting was getting closer and Itachi wouldn't stand a chance if it hit him.

Itachi very carefully started making his way down the mast. He went slow and stopped moving, holding on for dear life when the ship jerked particularly hard. But the going was slow, and it was only getting more dangerous and difficult as the moments went by.

The ropes he was using were wet, and the waves suddenly pushed the ship into the air. When it crashed back into the sea, Itachi lost his grip and was barely able to hold on with one hand.

Lighting filled the sky in front of Kisame and for a split second he could see nothing but white, then the air cleared, and as the thunder pounded in his ears, saw Itachi lose his grip completely, just as the waves turned the ship horizontal again, and he fell into the sea.

Everything was silent, then something—water, blood, both—pounded in Kisame's ears. He dove beneath the water, but not far enough to escape the terrible force of the storm. But there was no other way! Going deeper into the water would waste time and he couldn't bear to waste a second when one second could mean Itachi's last breath.

It felt like it took eons for Kisame to make it back near the ship; the water fought him every bit of the way, but the bottom of the boat was in sight, rocking up and down on the waves above. He scanned the water with the keen eyes of a predatory animal, seeing through the foggy blackness to the churning waters around the ship that he knew Itachi had fallen into. Panic set in when, at first, he didn't see the young Uchiha anywhere below the ship. Only when he looked up did he see a pair of legs connected to a body that was desperately trying to stay afloat among the crashing and rolling waves. He had to be impressed with Itachi; most other people who fall from a moving ship would start to drown as soon as they hit the choppy water. Now was the perfect time for Kisame to rescue him. He would never last staying afloat for an extended period of time, and Kisame would not allow Itachi to drown.

Yet he hesitated, floating just 25 feet below where Itachi was struggling to stay where there was oxygen for him to breathe.

If Kisame approached Itachi now, while he was still conscious, the only thing it would do would be to make Itachi panic, believing the mythical mershark was taking advantage of his weakness in order to have his way with him.

In all honesty, as he waited there, ruminating over the situation—Kisame considered that option.

Then, before he could come to a final decision about what to do, Itachi's legs stopped moving. He sunk so fast Kisame barely flicked his tail before the young Uchiha was resting in his arms and the strong mershark was hauling him back towards the air so he would be able to breathe. As soon as he breeched the surface of the water and heard a gasping breath from the surprisingly light body in his arms, Kisame realized just how panicked he had been in those few moments when Itachi seemed unconscious.

The young Uchiha was still gasping as rain poured down on his face, and it seemed breathing was all he had the strength to do. He let his head fall back on Kisame's chest and those rich, black eyes seemed to just faintly register what it was he was seeing when they closed and he passed out, his chest only rising and falling the tiniest bit—just enough to show that he was still alive. Kisame just had enough time to feel the warmth of Itachi's body against his before the waves began to rage against him and he knew he would have to take Itachi somewhere with dry land or he would die for sure.

It was so much harder than Kisame ever imagined it would be. He had thought about a possibility of having to swim with Itachi in order to save him, but he hadn't thought about it realistically. Now, with Itachi's weight constantly trying to pull him under every second, his arms and tail both screaming from the effort of swimming as fast as he could, he wished he'd though about it more. Should he have tried to carry Itachi back to the ship? He might have, if the ship hadn't been gone by the time he started looking around for it. Now all he could do was continue to swim. Swim until he passed out and sunk below the water, unable to keep Itachi above and leaving him to drown.

After a few hours, in which time the rain did not cease, Kisame began to pray for an island, or a ship,_ something_ he could leave Itachi on so that he could rest. He was already tired from chasing the ship all day previously, and swimming above water for too long a period wasn't good for him.

He was starting to cough, and he would slip beneath the waves from time to time but he knew that did nothing positive for Itachi. And, maybe it was just his imagination, but the young man's breathing seemed to be getting fainter the longer they swam. He needed to rest just as much as Kisame did.

After the sun came out, he realized how grateful he had been for the rain. In the sun he became dehydrated much more quickly, and the warm air disagreed with him, increasing his constantly growing desire to quit exponentially.

Every time he had the thought of quitting he would look down at Itachi's face, would feel the shape of his body against his own, and his strength would return—but that could not last forever.

* * *

When Itachi awoke, the last things he could remember were a bright, blinding light, the sensation of falling, and the blurred image of a face he didn't recognize.

His eyes were closed but he could tell that it was bright and would be unpleasant if he opened them. He was hot, but his clothes were moist, as though in the process of drying. He was terribly thirsty and hungry.

He felt cold, hard rock beneath him; wet from the water he felt slapping against his legs. He took a deep breath and, with all his strength, flipped himself over so he was facing the rock. Now the sun was not as bright against his eyelids, but he was even more exhausted than before. As he took another deep breathe, his nose filling with nothing but the smell of salt water all around him, he started to drift unconscious again.

The next time he awoke it was no longer painfully bright, but his stomach and throat were both as empty and dry as before. He could barely move, but he knew that if he fell asleep again he would not wake up a third time. Gritting his teeth, he pulled himself into a sitting position and opened one eye at a time. Though the sun was setting, alighting the sky a lovely mix of pinks and oranges, it still took a moment for his eyes to adjust. His eyelids felt as heavy as two metal barrels when he lifted them, but somehow he managed and finally got a look at where he was.

It was a rock, as he had presumed, in the middle of the ocean. All around was nothing but flat, blue water reflecting the setting sun—soon to be reflecting the evening stars. As soon as Itachi began to loose hope about finding something to eat or drink, he saw that on the far edge of the rock, closest to the water, was placed a coconut, a banana, and a large, deep shell filled with clear water.

Curious but cautious, Itachi approached the items. First, the banana. He picked it up, staring at it in his hand just long enough before his hunger overcame his caution and he peeled it and ate it slowly. He knew not to rush threw eating; he wasn't sure how long it had been since he'd last eaten and he didn't want to get sick.

After the banana he eyed the coconut, his dry throat reminding him that coconuts have milk inside them that would be good to drink, and just as he reached for his knife to cut it open he noticed the shell filled with water again. A thought occurred to him, and he wondered if it was even possible.

Lifting the shell with both hands carefully up to his lips, he let the tiniest trickle of water fall onto his lips. He licked them and was surprised to find that the water was not salty, but fresh, as though from a spring. He drank all the water in the shell as slowly as he'd eaten the banana and as soon as he was finished, began to feel some of his strength return. He could now think much more clearly about his situation and what had happened to land him in it.

He remembered everything clearly, even after his fall. He remembered hitting the water, the shock of it, suddenly being submerged in frigid, crashing waves. And he remembered trying to stay afloat amidst the tumbling water, with rain pounding all around and lightning striking the air above his head. Things got fuzzy when he lost the stamina to keep himself above the water and began to sink. He remembered, very faintly, being held and pulled back to the surface. And the face.

He remembered a face.

It was so blurry—he'd been so close to death in the moment—that Itachi couldn't be positive about the face's features, but he was sure he'd never seen anyone like it before. Itachi had an idea of the identity of the mysterious face—but he couldn't be sure because if it was whom he suspected then it didn't make sense that he was still alive, abandoned on this rock.

Well, not entirely abandoned. Someone had brought him food and somehow managed to get clean drinking water to a rocky island in the middle of the ocean. Someone was looking out for him. Possible the same someone who saved him from drowning—but that still wouldn't make sense!

Itachi took another deep breath, stood, and turned slowly to look 360 degrees around the rock. All he saw in all directions was water, and nothing more. He went to the edge of the rock, where the food had been left, and stared into the clear water, but there was nothing to see.

And yet, Itachi couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched.

He took out a knife that he carried with him at all times and set to cutting open the coconut, drinking the milk and then scooping out the meat inside. Once he was finished he sat on the rock, staring off to the West, where the sun was setting over the horizon. He sat like that until the moon was in the middle of the night sky, then he lay down and fell asleep.

The next day when he awoke he looked over the same edge of the rock and saw more food, and the shell from the day before once again filled to the brim with clear water. His curiosity and hope grew. If fresh water was brought to him as he slept, then the place the fresh water came from couldn't be too far away. Maybe it was even close enough for him to swim too!

But how would he know which direction to start swimming in? If only the mysterious person leaving the food and water would appear before him and show him the way, maybe he would stand a chance of surviving this abandonment—but no one ever came. He spent another day staring hopelessly off into the distance, combing his fingers methodically through his long, black hair.

On the third day, Itachi decided to take matters into his own hands. If the mysterious person would not show himself on his own, Itachi would try asking. He drank the water, and just as he was about to try talking to the sea in the hope that whoever was helping him was listening, something in the distance caught his eye.

All thought of the mysterious person and the face from his memory vanished as the ship came into view, because this was a back ship with billowing, red sails—his father had searched for him, and found him!

Itachi began waving desperately, eternally thankful for his bright red shirt that would surely get the attention of the crew on the ship.

Sure enough, the ship kept coming closer and closer to him until it stopped a ways away. The crew on the deck was cheering down at him as Itachi dove into the water and swam until he was at the ship. Someone threw over a rope ladder and he climbed until he was on the deck. He felt several people hug him all at once, but he only saw one—Sasuke was there, hugging him closely. Itachi felt like he could cry. While sitting on that rock he thought he'd never get the chance to see his little brother again, but somehow he survived and could see Sasuke everyday.

While everyone on the ship was still cheering at the amazing survival and rescue of the beloved captain's son, The Red Fan sailed back towards the docks—not a soul noticed the flick of a tail slowly following after the ship as it made it's way home…

* * *

**Woooo! So Itachi and Kisame finally met! ….Kinda.**

**Hey! Maybe next chapter they'll actually TALK! Won't that be exciting!**

**XD**

**KeikoPanda102**


	14. Story 2: Chapter 4

**Story 2: The Little Mershark**

**Chapter 4:**

Kisame was exhausted.

He had never swam so much in his life as he had in the past four days. First swimming with Hidan to the Harbors, then following the Red Fan out to sea, then rescuing Itachi and swimming with that added weight until he finally found somewhere to leave his unconscious body. Once he'd done that, Kisame had gotten to rest for a bit, until Itachi awoke for just a moment to turn to his stomach, then Kisame realized that if he didn't find something for the young human to eat and drink, his rescue would eventually be in vain.

Though his tail ached, he followed a flock of birds flying overhead until he found a small island. He enlisted the help of a few terrified monkeys to bring him some fruit, then dove underneath the water and tasted that there was a fresh spring nearby, probably somewhere on the island itself. Though he was just going to hope the liquids in the fruit was enough to sustain Itachi, he thought it would be worth it to look for real, drinkable water instead. He swam along a narrow canal into the middle of the island and once there, could taste not even a bit of salt in the water. He looked around for a shell and found a perfect one, deep and wide, without any holes or cracks, and filled it with the fresh water. Then, he carried the shell and fruit above the surface of the ocean all the way back to the rock he'd left Itachi on. By this time the sun was setting and Kisame's tail was aching even worse, the freshwater from the island not helping his weary condition.

He had just placed the shell carefully on the edge of the rock when Itachi stirred once again. Kisame sunk below the water, out of sight. He could hardly believe how happy it made him to know that Itachi was still alive, that he had saved the young human's life. He took in a shuddering deep mouthful of salty seawater and closed his eyes, finally allowing himself to rest.

The next day he repeated the same thing. He thought about revealing himself on the second day, but couldn't make up his mind, and ended up staying concealed underwater. On the third day, as he filled the shell once again with clean water from the island and started back towards Itachi, he made a final decision—he would show himself today, after Itachi finished eating.

But fate had other plans. Kisame noticed the ship before Itachi did. He felt his heart sink to the ocean floor, but at the same time he was relieved. He still wasn't sure what to say to Itachi. It didn't matter that he'd saved the young Uchiha's life, he was still a big, ugly, terrifying animal, capable of ripping the human to shreds if he so desired. The possibility that Itachi would trust him at all was slim, and how would he react if he realized that Kisame was in love with him? Probably just with more fear, considering the legend he'd heard from the sailors a few nights prior.

No, Kisame didn't feel ready to reveal himself yet. But he was glad—ecstatic really—that Itachi had been rescued. Maybe things could go back to normal, with Itachi speaking his problems out to the sea from his special dock while Kisame listened to him silently from below.

After everything that had happened to him over the past week, Kisame thought he would want to go straight home, rest and regain his full strength. But after following The Red Fan back to the Harbors to be sure Itachi was completely safe, Kisame didn't particularly feel like heading home. Maybe it was because of something he had overheard Itachi say when they were docking the ship, but Kisame felt as though it wasn't over quite yet.

"I can't believe that happened to you on your first real sail, Kid. Guess it's just bad luck of being the Captain's son. But you're still a great sailor; you helped a lot in the middle of the storm—before you fell overboard that is." Asuma clapped Itachi on the back as they stepped onto the solid streets at the Harbor.

"Yes," Itachi had murmured, sounding thoughtful. "I supposed it was bad luck. But I lived, so perhaps it was good luck. I still have to think about it some more before I'm sure of how I feel about what happened. It is not every day one has a life-threatening experience such as this." He paused, then added mostly to himself, "I have a lot to think about."

That was what made Kisame suspect that if he went to the dock today, he would find Itachi sitting with his feel dangling over the side, because he knew that the dock was Itachi's very favorite place to think.

So to the dock he went, though he wasn't really sure why. He was still tired, though not as much as he had been before, and he was determined to see this through to the end. Besides, when would he ever pass up a chance to hear Itachi's voice?

When he got to the dock (took him several hours to get there), Itachi was not there as he had predicted he would be. Kisame remained submerged underwater and swam to the rock beside one of the poles holding the old dock up and remained there in the shadows, silent and still. A few miniscule fish swam by and fell pray to his hunger, but he was mainly only eating to pass time. He wondered how long he would have to wait, or if maybe he had been wrong and Itachi wouldn't come at all. Still he remained underneath the dock. When the sun was beginning its decline, he poked his head out of the sea and leaned it against the dock, growing slightly impatient and annoyed. Then, finally, the boards above his head creaked with the weight of someone walking on them. He looked up, hopeful, and smiled, waiting to see Itachi's legs dangling over the end of the dock.

But he didn't sit this time. Kisame could see him standing there through a crack in the wood, and for a while he did nothing but stare into the water before him. Kisame felt as though he didn't dare even breathe, and every splash of waves against the rocks seemed like it was going to give him away, then Itachi spoke, causing Kisame to nearly jump out of his skin.

"Come out, Shark. I know you're here somewhere."

Kisame froze. He felt, for the first time in his life, what it was like to be prey, not predator. What did he do? Did he keep hiding? No, he would be found. Prey was always found if predator was willing to try hard enough. Did he run? Would he be able to live with himself if he did?

But what if he came back another time and it happened again? Was this what it felt like to live as a weak creature? Always in fear of something terrifying coming to get you, never able to live in peace?

If this was it, then it would just be better to give himself up now, instead of delaying the inevitable.

But he couldn't move, he was frozen with shock, and he couldn't make up his mind.

"I want to give you my thanks for saving me, but you must show yourself."

Was it just his imagination, or was that a quiver in Itachi's voice? Perhaps the stoic, young Uchiha was frightened too. Kisame suddenly overcame his shock, and flicked his tail, splashing water out from under the dock.

Above him, Itachi flinched and stumbled; suddenly realizing that the one he was speaking to was directly beneath him. Though obviously startled, he didn't make a sound as he stepped around the end of the dock, trying to find some place to look to where the splash came from.

"Why won't you show yourself? You can understand me, can't you?"

Kisame let a low grumble rise from his chest. His blood was racing and his head was filling with Itachi's scent. Itachi was speaking to him, _directly_ to him.

"I'm not afraid of you," Itachi said, still trying to look below the dock. Kisame could tell from the tone of his voice that he was scowling. "I've come here to offer myself up to you."

Kisame's eyes widened and he slipped off of the rock, pacing in circles underneath the dock. What had Itachi just said? Offer himself up? What did that mean? Why would he—

"Well?" Itachi asked.

Kisame could hear his heavy breathing, could smell the shift in the air that his breath made. He could almost feel it, could taste it on his tongue.

Itachi suddenly got to his knees and stared through a crack in the dock. Kisame ducked below the water, into the shadows. Itachi was frowning in earnest as he said flatly,

"This is my last offer: show yourself—now. Or I am never returning to this dock again."

He then stood and began walking towards the shore, but he had only gone a few feet when Kisame finally spoke through gritted teeth,

"Stop!"

Itachi stopped, and slowly turned around.

"Show yourself," he said commandingly.

Kisame had to give it him. Not just anyone would have the guts to speak to a fully-grown mershark with a tone like that. He chuckled silently, thinking that this was one of the things he loved most about Itachi's personality.

"Fine. Come to the end of the dock."

Itachi hesitated; then obeyed. He stood at the end of the dock and Kisame took a deep breath, then slowly swam out from underneath Itachi's feet. The dock cast a shadow on the water, but he knew that Itachi would still be able to see him perfectly. With a nervous huff, he looked up, finally seeing Itachi from straight on, with nothing to block his view.

The sight nearly took his breath away.

For a moment, they simply stared at one another. Itachi was the first to speak.

"You can talk."

"I guess so."

"You've never spoken up before," Itachi replied, somewhat accusingly. He didn't even give Kisame a chance to answer before he asked, "How long have you been coming here? I saw you the other day, but I've felt as though someone was listening to me for a long time. How long?"

"Do you give all your stalkers the once-over like this—?"

"How long?"

Kisame hesitated, then sighed and replied softly,

"Since you were young."

"How young?"

Kisame smiled, revealing his rows of sharp teeth. He saw Itachi's eyes widen, then his face went back to its emotionless mask.

"Before Sasuke was born."

Itachi blinked, and then narrowed his eyes cautiously.

"How much do you know?" he asked slowly.

"I know everything you've ever said here. I… like to listen to you complain."

He had expected much more fear from Itachi, but he should have known better. Itachi was not one to let fear, of all things, to show on his face. All he did in response to this last confession was to ask,

"Why me?"

Kisame couldn't help but want to frighten him. He swum in a bit closer to the dock and smiled wide as he replied,

"You smell good. Sweet."

Itachi was not fazed, it seemed, as he took a step forward as well and replied challengingly,

"Then why haven't you taken me yet, Shark? You've had plenty of opportunity, particularly over the last few days."

Kisame was taken aback.

"My name is Kisame, and… maybe I like to play with my food before I eat it."

"For eighteen years?"

"Touché."

"Give me a real answer, Kisame the Mershark. Why haven't you 'had your way with me' like the legends say?"

Kisame had no answer for this.

Well, he did, but he wasn't sure he should give up his reason so easily.

"I don't have a reason…" he said, watching Itachi carefully, then flicking his tail to the side, sliding around to the left side of the dock. Itachi followed him with his eyes. "The life of a mershark can get terribly boring. Maybe I just wanted some entertainment, not lunch. Anyway, have you ever thought that maybe those legends of yours aren't entirely accurate?"

Itachi exhaled, a frown still adorning his feminine features. The wind wasn't blowing too much today. The image Kisame had always pictured in his head of Itachi's long, dark hair billowing about him wasn't the image he saw standing on the dock, though that hair still looked as soft and smooth as ever.

"Fine, another question then: why did you rescue me when I fell? Why were you following our ship in the first place?"

"I think that's two questions."

". . ."

"Hm, if I tell you why I saved you, then it's my turn to ask the questions, deal?"

Itachi nodded.

"I saved you because it would be a waste for someone who smells as sweet as you to simply drown in the middle of a little storm," Kisame said, lying through his teeth. "I was following you because I'm your stalker. Didn't I already say that?"

"But why didn't you—?"

"My turn now, remember."

Though he seemed very unhappy about it, Itachi closed his mouth and allowed Kisame to speak.

"You're wondering why I saved you, and here I am wondering what would possess you to come back here, knowing that a big, bad mershark was here waiting for you? You should already consider yourself lucky to have encountered me and still be alive; are you just testing fate now? I could eat you at any moment."

"You won't." Itachi's eyes flashed.

"You sound confident. What makes you so sure?"

"You would have done it by now if you were going to."

"Are you positive? You don't know too much about merpeople; maybe we're different than humans; maybe we think differently and wait for a completely random moment to attack?"

"Hn," he snorted, obviously not impressed. "Doubtful."

Kisame just shrugged, continuing with his bluff, hoping to use it as a cover to hide the truth. He floated around slowly to the other side of the dock, hoping his movement might make Itachi nervous and frightened.

"You didn't answer the question."

"I already told you why I'm here," Itachi replied, his dark eyes so intent on Kisame, the mershark was surprised he didn't spontaneously burst into flames. "I'm here to offer myself up to you."

Kisame stopped moving and looked underneath the dock at the water splashing up against the rocks and wooden columns. He didn't like this. He didn't like where it was going. He didn't like how casually Itachi said that he would offer himself up. In fact, he hated it.

"Yeah, you did say something about that, didn't you?"

"You saved my life, and I owe you. I'm willing to pay my debt to you this way, without you having to use force."

Kisame's expression grew grim, but he grinned up at Itachi, flashing his sharp teeth once again.

"Do you even know what you're offering up, exactly?"

"Yes. I'm going to give you my virginity to repay you for my life. I thought about it a lot—on that rock, and on the ship after they found me. I was going to try and speak to you before, but I was distracted as soon as they—"

"Forget it."

"What?"

"I said forget it, Itachi."

The use of his name seemed to finally make the young Uchiha falter in his determination. Kisame couldn't just be a brute fish if he could say his name like that—like he knew every little thing about Itachi there was no know. He blinked and took a step forward just as Kisame began to swim away.

"Wait," He said quickly, "You saved me! I have to repay—"

"No, you don't have to repay me, really," Kisame said, refusing to look at Itachi. "You've already given me enough. I've been watching you for eighteen years, remember? I was following that ship _so_ I could save you, get it?"

"I don't—"

Kisame turned around and snapped his jaw towards the dock, leaping a few feet out of the water as he did. Itachi flinched, his eyes wide.

"Go on! Live the rest of your life. Protect your brother, and yourself, from your father. Come here and tell the ocean all about it, but don't tell it to me anymore. I won't be coming back."

"But—"

"Goodbye, Itachi," Kisame whispered, taking one last deep breath, filling his head with Itachi's scent, then diving down, deep into the dark of the water without turning around once to look back towards the surface.

On the dock, Itachi fell to his knees. He felt sick, heartbroken. Why did he feel this way? He had only spoken to Kisame for the first time today. And hadn't he been spared from the fate of sleeping with a shark? He had lost nothing but a stalker who wasn't even human in the first place. He was free to live the rest of his life unburdened and safe. So, why did it hurt so much?

Why did it feel like he had lost a best friend that he never got to really know?

* * *

"Kisame," Kakuzu said with a deeper scowl than usual as he swam up to his best friend who was, at the moment, resting his head on the bar—coincidentally the same place he'd been for the past few weeks. Upon hearing Kakuzu's voice, Kisame opened one eye and made a face.

"What's up, Kakuzu? How's married life?"

"We aren't married yet you drunk fool. You'd know that if you ever left this damn bar."

"Hmph," Kisame replied, turning to face the other way. "Don't forget to invite me to the wedding so I can remember to forget to go."

Kakuzu shook his head.

"Hey asshole," he said, knwing just what to say to hit his best friend where it hurt. "You know what today is, don't you?"

He saw Kisame's shoulders stiffen, but he gave no reaction past that. Kakuzu flinched with irritation.

"It's the second Saturday of the month."

Again, Kisame gave no response that would make Kakuzu assume that he'd even heard him, but the merman knew that Kisame had heard—and understood.

"Your pretty little human friend is probably out on that dock right now, waiting for y—"

In a flash, Kisame spun through the water and snapped at Kakuzu, his eyes black as coals and his teeth glinting in the low light of the bar. The music in the corner stopped and everyone looked at them. Kakuzu gave Kisame a shove and Kisame replied by gripping his arm and making it a duel of strength, which he knew he would win. He jerked Kakuzu's arm around and was about to throw the other merman across the room when he felt a hand clasp around his neck.

He stopped and from the corner of his eye saw dangerous, bright pink.

"Hurt Kakuzu," Hidan said, his voice filled with venom, "and poison'll be in your bloodstream afore you can say my name."

Kisame released Kakuzu's arm in a second, and felt Hidan slowly swim away from him. It was silent in the bar. Nearly everyone in it knew Kisame and Kakuzu, or at least knew that they were friends. At least they were supposed to be friends.

"Leave me alone," Kisame growled.

Kakuzu bright green eyes flashed, but he gave no reply. Kisame shook his head and quickly swam out of the hole in the ship that was used as the bar.

He felt horribly ashamed at what he'd done. He had almost hurt his best friend. Why did Kakuzu have to bring up Itachi anyway? The wound was still fresh, and Kisame was dealing with it the best way he could.

As he swam even further from the bar and the area around it, the water seemed darker than usual. His mood was darker than usual too. It had been ever since he decided to give up on Itachi.

It wasn't until the young human had mentioned giving his virginity to him in return for saving his life that Kisame realized how stupid he'd been all this time, lusting after someone he could never really have. There were a few moments when he felt _so stupid_ for not doing it, for not taking advantage of the situation. He could have _had_ Itachi. Itachi was giving himself _willingly_. Anyone else would have done it, would have succumbed to the desire of that scent and that pristine skin. But somehow, the thought of taking advantage of Itachi—after all those years listening to his life—made Kisame sick to his stomach.

And now he'd gotten in a fight with Kakuzu. Hidan too, now that he thought about it. He knew he shouldn't have been short with them. He was only taking out his anger on them—which wasn't fair. He wished he cared enough to hope that they would forgive him.

Unfortunately, Kisame didn't care if they forgave him. He didn't care about much. There were times when he just wanted to sink into the darkest pits of the ocean and stay there forever, living off lanternfish and strange sightless animals that looked to be just a backbone—or not living at all. He didn't really care either way. Anything was better than this constant debate in his head, one side arguing that he should have taken Itachi's offer when it'd been made to him, the other side yelling that he should just move on, and still a third side saying he was just being dramatic and that he should go back and see if Itachi's offer was still on the table. Always bickering inside him, always leaving him with doubt and insecurity.

The longer he contemplated finding a deep, dark pit to sink into, the stronger his desire for such a place became. Without really realizing it, he began to drift towards the West, the cooler waters. He didn't think about where he was going—he just went.

He may have drifted for five minutes or an hour. He wasn't paying attention to anything but the raging battle going on inside his head. The longer it went on, the more Kisame longed for a place utterly devoid of sense. Maybe there he would grow so cold he would become unable to recall the feel of Itachi's silky, warm skin against his; to hear the sound of his smooth, alto voice, speaking calmly over the crash of the waves; to remember the deep, piercing, enchanting quality of his eyes; and that smell—that terrible, beautiful smell, mixing with the salty air and sending shivers down Kisame's spine.

He wished he could forget, but the further he sunk into the dark and the cold the more he remembered. It was as though the less he could see of his world beneath the water, the more he remembered Itachi's.

Everything is so much clearer in the air. Even the most pristine, clear water clouded and slowed life. Kisame had lived his entire life that same way—clouded and slowed—until he first set eyes upon Itachi.

That moment was Kisame's first real breath of fresh air.

More than anything, Kisame wished he had never revealed himself to Itachi. He knew it was a bad idea, but the result was so much more painful than he ever could have imagined.

For the first time in a while, Kisame looked around to see where he was. There wasn't much to see, just dark water and sandy rocks. He was miles and miles away from the kingdom and the area surrounding it, but he could still smell home, and knew he would be able to find his way back—if he ever went back.

He spun around, facing away from the expanse of blue that his nose told him led towards home, and towards a wall of blue that descended into darkness not very much farther along. He took a deep breath, filling his gills with water, and began to dive. It gave him a strangely sick satisfaction knowing that absolutely nothing awaited him in those dark depths.

At least, that's what he thought…

* * *

After Itachi's first treacherous sail, the stormy season began in earnest. Though Fugaku wanted to continue sailing into the season, after much arguing Shisui convinced the Uchiha captain to wait for the storms to end like the rest of the sailing companies.

Word of Fugaku's stubbornness got to the crew and no one seemed to look very kindly on his desire to so willingly put everyone's lives on the line just to make a bit more money. Itachi had overheard a few sailors grumbling down at the pub about his father's disregard for their lives and whispers of a rebellion grew more frequent. Shisui, Fugaku's lieutenant, looked worse each time Itachi saw him. Though none of the crew blamed Itachi, the eldest Uchiha brother wanted nothing to do with the tension around the harbors and at home.

To make matters worse, Sasuke had been staying away from their house more often as of late and although Itachi knew exactly where Sasuke went and was happy for him for finding a way to escape their father, the house minus his little brother felt depressingly empty.

And Itachi thought about Kisame every day.

When there were no jobs to pursue and no Sasuke at home, Itachi ended up at his dock. Except now, he realized that he found himself thinking of it as Kisame's dock. He went there almost every day and stayed as long as he could, sometimes until late in the evening when the mood shone high above the rolling water.

And yet, while sitting on the dock used to bring him peace of mind, whenever he sat there now he felt… unsettled, conflicted.

How could he miss someone so much who he'd never even known? Yes, Kisame had rescued him, but up until then Itachi hadn't had any idea about the mershark listening in on him from beneath the dock on which he now sat.

Maybe it was just the idea that—for once—someone had actually been listening to him. At home and in the village, while he was most certainly admired and included, people (even his own family) seemed a bit unsure around Itachi; as though they didn't really know how to talk to him.

Though he never let it show, this frustrated him. When he would come to the dock, he would vent that frustration to the ocean and—although he hadn't known it then—to Kisame.

The dock was the only place he felt he could be himself, and it occurred to him now that he knew about Kisame always listening in on him, that he had always been himself around Kisame.

Not that it meant much.

It was clear from the first time Itachi came back to the dock after speaking to Kisame that his personal myth would not be returning, just as he'd said. This did not stop Itachi from hoping, though.

Every day when he reached the dock he thought, _maybe today is the day_,and took a deep breath before standing at the very edge of the wood, looking out into the water, and timidly asking into the wind,

"Are you here today?"

He never received a reply, but he didn't stop asking. He wondered when he would. Surely after enough time he would get tired of never getting a reply and would stop asking all-together, but until then he had hope, and though the sinking feeling of defeat always hurt when no low, gravelly voice answered back, the feeling of excitement when he asked was always worth it.

He wasn't really sure why he wanted Kisame to return so badly. That was a question that weighed very heavily on Itachi's mind ever since Kisame declared that he would no longer listen to Itachi's conversations with the waves.

Though Kisame told him to continue telling his life to the ocean, Itachi couldn't find the will to do it anymore. Every time he went to the dock he would try. He'd open his mouth to begin but nothing would come out, and all he ended up thinking about was Kisame.

It wasn't as thought there was nothing to talk about, what with the waves of rebellion growing closer and closer to the shore, and his little brother's "mysterious" disappearances. It was just the Itachi didn't want to tell these things to anyone who wasn't Kisame.

Which was strange, because he barely knew Kisame. Not to mention that Kisame was a large and rather vicious-looking mershark who had already confessed to stalking Itachi for most of his life.

_Not that he explained why…_ Itachi thought with an annoyed scowl.

The only _reason_ he'd gotten outta the mershark was something about Itachi's scent. For what was possibly the 50th time, Itachi turned his head towards his shoulder and inhaled. He sighed when, once again, his scent appeared to him to be completely average. He had no clue what Kisame had been talking about.

Yet, the sharkman clearly smelled something Itachi did not. Why else would he come back to the surface every month just to hear some human complain about his life?

Obsidian eyes fell to the cracks between the wooden planks of the dock. Dark, splashing waters were all he saw, but he felt his heart rate quicken. For years and years, without Itachi knowing, Kisame had been down there in that shallow water beneath the dock, listening.

He felt cheated. How was it fair for Kisame to know so much about him when he in turn knew so little about Kisame?

And Itachi _wanted_ to know more! Even though he probably shouldn't care and should just consider himself lucky for having survived an extended encounter with a mershark, he couldn't forget Kisame. The enigma he embodied piqued Itachi's interests more than anyone he'd ever met.

The thing that puzzled Itachi most was why Kisame had refused his offer to replay the debt he owed the mershark for saving his life.

Itachi spent hours just trying to figure that one out; but for all his pondering, nothing seemed to make sense. According to the myth Itachi had been told that said mersharks prey on attractive human males, Kisame should have jumped at Itachi's offer. He had offered his body, after all.

"But that was when you got upset, wasn't it?" Itachi muttered against the wind, staring out at the vast waters before him. The cresting waves caught his eye and he stood. Why was this desire to see Kisame one more time so great? He felt like he wanted to jump straight into the water and dive deep down, searching until he found Kisame. He wanted to talk to him again and maybe—

He shivered and took a step back from the water. He felt foolish for even thinking about diving in the water to go searching for a mershark. And he was frightened, because for a brief moment he'd thought of how Kisame's arms had felt wrapped around him when he'd been pulled up to the surface and saved from drowning.

"…maybe I want to feel that again…" he whispered, hugging himself against the frigid winds.

He stood there for only a moment longer, then turned around and walked from the dock, his mind and body more confused than ever before.

But he knew he would come back to the dock—_Kisame's _dock. He would keep coming back until his mershark returned.

* * *

The darkness enveloped Kisame as he dove deeper. There was still enough light to just make out the gigantic rock-faces that seemed to be growing ever closer to him as he swum, but maybe that was just his imagination. The light was fading fast, and he felt eternally grateful for this. He wasn't sure how much more sulky in the open sea he could take. Maybe he could find a tiny cave, completely devoid of light, and settle in there for a few years. At least long enough to forget about Itachi and—

Oh no. He'd done it again. Though about Itachi. He cursed himself for even thinking of the dark-haired human because as soon as he did he began remembering all kinds of little thing he wished he could forget; the depth of Itachi's eyes, the tone of his voice, the smell—

No, no anything but that smell! Kisame shook his head roughly and nearly strained himself as he pressed his tail against the water to propel him forward even faster than he'd been going before. It was colder and colder and growing and darker and darker; just a little bit farther now and he could submit to the bliss of nothingness.

Ahhh… There it was. Darkness. Silence. Perfect. He could feel his cares and emotions slipping away from him.

He began to float, still heading downward. He wondered how long he would have to go to reach the glowing fish and abstract creatures on the seafloor. He wondered if he could even survive down there. He'd heard stories before of some merpeople who tried to reach those depths and wound up floating dead back on the surface. A few could handle the pressure and heat at those levels though. He imagined that, as one of the oceans most powerful creatures, he stood a better chance than most. He'd even heard some rumors about strange, distant merpeople living among the glowers down in the dark. It was said that they glowed just like their less perceptive brethren. Meeting them would certainly be an interesting story to bring back to the others once he decided to return to civilization.

But he didn't really want to think about going back to even going to find the glowers just yet. He was still enjoying the dark, quiet solitude he found in the valleys. He closed his eyes; it wasn't like there was anything to see, and used the movement of the water to guide him away from stray rocks or deep-water currents. His sense of smell was also dulled down in the darkness, but strangely enough his hearing wasn't.

When he first heard it, he thought he was just imaging things. But then his nose picked up a scent, and he frowned.

It couldn't be possible.

He opened his eyes and squinted right away at the very dim light coming from somewhere ahead of him and to his right. He growled.

It _could not_ be possible.

Who the hell was all the way down here in the fucking valleys? There wasn't a merperson Kisame had ever heard of who went down here to live, or even stay for very long for that matter.

But no matter how absurd it seemed, Kisame could not deny that there was a smell of merpeople in the water, and it was coming from the same direction as the light and the sound. And the sound didn't appear to be just talking or moving but _music_ of some kind. And he thought he could hear laughter or all things, and as he swam towards it the light just got brighter and brighter though it clearly wasn't sunlight at this level beneath the water. Curiosity—and also annoyance at having his quiet darkness taken away—took Kisame and he moved even closer towards the mysterious merpeople. They seemed to be just around the corner of a large cliff, judging by everything Kisame was sensing from them. His instincts were to he wary and cautious, but these merpeople's obvious disregard for quiet or secrecy led him to be more adventurous than he would usually be in a situation like this one.

He swam straight around the cliff face and saw the source of the smell, the sounds, the light right away.

There was a large crack down the side of one of the cliffs leading down in to the valleys, and inside that crack was a place Kisame had heard of many times, but never had any inclination to see it for himself—Orochimaru the Sea Snake's Hideout.

_I never thought his cave was this deep in the valley!_ Kisame thought as he swam closer to the crack in the valley cliff. He wondered vaguely how anyone ever found it.

Kisame knew it was Orochimaru's hideout as soon as he saw the entrance because there, floating just outside of it, was Suigetsu. Any other time Kisame would have seen the young mershark and swam the other direction, but just this once something told him to go inside the screwball sea snake's hideout to see for himself what Suigetsu always went on about whenever he saw him.

Suigetsu must have smelled him then, because the young mershark turned around and waved excitedly at Kisame, swimming up to greet him with a slap on his shoulder.

"Kisame! You finally made it here! This is great!"

"Yeah," Kisame agreed halfheartedly, a bit off-put by this sudden socialization after being so submerged in solidarity just a few moments ago. He still hadn't quite left that frame of mind. The lights illuminating the cave—which turned out to be a large number of restrained jellyfish and electric eels—felt abnormally bright to Kisame as Suigetsu led him back to the mouth of the cave and welcomed him inside.

A merman named Juugo, who looked to be just around Suigetsu's age and who Kisame had often seen hanging around the young mershark, appeared from a crack in the cave wall and followed after Kisame and Suigetsu as they swam slowly further inside. The further inside they went the brighter it became until finally they reached a sort of main hall and the lights dimmed to what Kisame felt was a more suitable level of brightness.

There was a surprising amount of merfolk inside the main hall, particularly for a location that seemed to Kisame to be very difficult to find. He assumed there must have been some trick to finding it that he was not aware of. Most of the merfolk were mermen and mermaids, but amidst those Kisame caught sight of one or two merhorses and meroctopi. Most of the inhabitants seemed to be relaxing or training, but a few appeared frightened, as though they were unable to leave. Kisame guessed that the rumors about Orochimaru being a "collector" of sorts weren't totally false.

As soon as they entered the main chamber, Kisame became aware that Suigetsu had been flapping his jaws the entire time they were swimming along the entrance hallway. He felt a bit bad that he hadn't been paying attention and all he wound up hearing was the last bit as Suigetsu exclaimed,

"…I mean, wow! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him. I thought you'd be the only Great White I ever saw and then the famous _Zabuza_ swims in, of all merpoeple! Look, he's over there."

Kisame was quite positive he didn't have any idea what Suigetsu was going on about, but the kid seemed very excited and was pointing over to the far corner of the cavern where a solitary figure was sitting on a couch made from a seaweed-wrapped rock. As soon as Kisame focused in on his features, the name that Suigetsu had said suddenly clicked in his head.

"Zabuza?" he asked, swimming in a bit closer to the mysterious figure in the corner. Suigetsu, excited that Kisame had finally replied, nodded and gave a toothy smile.

"_The_ Zabuza. You know, the one who took a human boy from land and supposedly had his way with him before killing him and mysteriously disappearing."

"I'd heard that he died…" Kisame muttered thoughtfully.

The merman was most certainly mershark, like he and Suigetsu, and from his features he looked not just like a Great White as Suigetsu had said, but precisely fitting the descriptions always giving of the Zabuza from the story. He was about as tall as Kisame; broad chest; short, dark brown hair; skin that was much less blue than Kisame's, but was instead marred by a generous amount of scars which gave him the effect of unbridled ferocity fitting his title of Zabuza The Demon.

Kisame had to admit he was intrigued if indeed this mershark was the real Zabuza from the story.

"He showed up here about two days ago," Suigetsu said softly with a tone of awe. "Just him and some merkid. They swam in and said they knew Orochimaru. They've been staying here ever since. Sometimes the kid goes off with Orochimaru back to his lab. Zabuza never seems to like that much and he just sits there until the kid comes back. Dunno who the kid is, though."

"Hm," Kisame said, still looking over at Zabuza, wondering if it would be worth the risk to go and ask him a few questions…

"Anyway, Kisame," Suigetsu said, interrupting Kisame's internal debate. "It's lucky you're here. Orochimaru's been waiting for you. He's been watching you and said he wants to offer you a deal."

This piqued both Kisame's curiosity and annoyance. He wasn't sure how he felt about the sea snake spying on him without him knowing about it. It wouldn't have taken too much watching to figure out about Kisame's little _human_ problem. He didn't have any idea what kind of offer Orochimaru was going to try to con him into, but he was much more interested in the mysterious reappearance of a mershark whom Kisame—and almost everyone else—had presumed dead.

Suddenly, said mershark (who, up to this point had seemed very uninterested in the things going on around him) rose from his seat, floating in the water with predatory eyes turned towards the far side of the room, at a door closed off by bright purple curtains. At first Kisame was unsure what Zabuza was staring at, and then the curtains were parted and a young—and very beautiful—merman swam through, followed not a moment later by the eclectic and infamous Sea Snake, Orochimaru.

From the way Zabuza's eyes followed the young merman, it was clear to Kisame that whoever this merboy was—he was special. He was probably even special beyond just Zabuza if Orochimaru wanted one-on-one time with him too. In truth, he _was_ very beautiful. His beauty could have even rivaled Itachi's; but, to Kisame, Itachi's scent would always be the most exquisite of all the world.

Upon catching sight of the mershark that would be Zabuza, it was again crystal clear to Kisame that, just as the boy was special to Zabuza, Zabuza was special to the boy. He darted across the room to Zabuza's side but quickly came to a halt before the giant shark. He then dropped his gaze to the floor with a soft smile and assumed a servile posture and expression. Zabuza's gaze shifted from him towards Orochimaru who had followed slowly after the young boy and was just reaching the other side of the room. Zabuza grimaced as Orochimaru turned his serpentine smile upon him, but before either could speak, Orochimaru noticed Kisame standing off to the side.

"Ohooo!" he said, clapping his hands together gracefully. "It seems we have _two_ great mersharks gracing our hideout this evening!"

Even though Kisame didn't really like the kid, he couldn't help but feel a bit bad when Suigetsu seemed to melt at Orochimaru's words. Kisame sighed—it wasn't as though he could do anything about it—and reluctantly made his way over to Orochimaru and the mysterious mershark and his even more mysterious ward.

"Kisame," Orochimaru said in his slithery voice, "I've been waiting for your arrival. These two showing up, on the other hand, was a complete surprise. Not that I'm not glad to see you again, Zabuza and Haku."

Kisame's eyes narrowed and he quickly glanced at Zabuza and then back at Orochimaru. _So it is the famous Zabuza. Hm…_

The other mershark noticed Kisame glance but didn't particularly seem to care.

"We were just passing through," Zabuza said. He placed a hand on the young merman's shoulder and added, "Haku had a strange desire to he his old… home, again. I thought it wouldn't hurt to check on a few things while we were nearby."

"You aren't planning on going back to the capitol, are you?" Kisame asked with a touch of amusement tinting his voice.

Zabuza finally took the time to look Kisame up and down with his murderous eyes. The finally, he smiled, revealing rows of teeth to match Kisame's.

"I was thinking about paying my old hunting grounds a visit. I'm sure everyone'll be just _dying_ to see me again!" he gave a short laugh and Kisame chuckled in reply.

"If you need a place to stay," Kisame offered, taking the opportunity to get on this powerful sharks good-side, "I have a couple of friends with a nice place just outside of the city. They're poison fish, but I'm sure they'd let you stay if you tell them Kisame sent—"

Suddenly Kisame remembered the way he'd treated Hidan and Kakuzu the last time he'd seen them. He bit his lip.

"Ahh, scratch that, actually… I just remembered we aren't on the best terms right now…"

"Hm," Zabuza replied, "It's fine. I was considering skipping that old town anyway. I'm not as young as I used to be. It's more… dangerous to cause trouble now than it was before."

Kisame didn't miss now his hand tightened around Haku's narrow shoulders as he spoke. The young mershark leaned against the broad chest of his companion and sighed contentedly. Kisame felt his heart ache. This merman was truly the Zabuza from the legend; there was no doubt about that. That meant that there was a very good chance this young merman was the same human from the myth as well…

Orochimaru seemed pleased with Kisame and Zabuza's interaction. He smirked, then slithered around to Kisame's other side, between he and Zabuza, and said lowly,

"It's such an interesting coincidence that the both of you wound up at my hideout at the same time, considering…" he slid around to Zabuza's other side and stroked a hand through Haku's long, brown hair. The young boy didn't seem to mind at all, but Zabuza let out a low growl. Orochiamru looked up at him and smirked again.

"…Considering that Kisame seems to have to same _weakness_ you did, Zabuza."

Zabuza's eyes widened while Kisame's narrowed dangerously in the Sea Snake's direction. He knew he didn't like the infamous Orochimaru. He was a known liar, cheater, thief, and most dangerously, a magician. Suddenly it occurred to Kisame that Orochimaru must have had something to do with Haku's transformation from a human into a merman. He jerked his head quickly in the Sea Snake's direction, just as Zabuza turned to him and murmured lowly,

"He calls it a weakness, and he may be right, but it's best to accept his help anyway. He doesn't really ask anything for it, just a few tests, and… maybe a favor or two down the road."

Kisame turned to Zabuza who stared at him gravely for a moment. Then, Kisame glanced down at Haku, who quickly looked away. Kisame's head was suddenly full of thoughts of Itachi, so much that his chest began to hurt.

"Weakness, huh?" he murmured. "I think I'm even weaker because I can't be with him."

"Yeah," Zabuza sighed gruffly, glaring in Orochimaru's direction. "That's exactly the problem."

"Hey kid," Kisame asked suddenly, in Haku's direction. "I've got a question for you."

After a moments hesitation, Haku looked up and smiled at Kisame, replying,

"Yes?"

"Was it worth it?"

This time there was no hesitation. Haku's dark brown eyes were set with conviction.

"It was worth everything."

That was all Kisame needed; he swam towards Orochimaru as the Sea Snake led him back towards the doorway he and Haku had emerged from. Kisame looked back once at Zabuza and Haku to see the large mershark gently stroke the young merman's cheek as the latter smiled lovingly up at the former's face.

_It must have been destiny that I came across this place. _His mind filled with thoughts of Itachi once more as Orochimaru led him inside a strange room filled with colorful objects and potions.

_I haven't given up yet, Itachi! I'm coming back to the dock to see you one more time!_

* * *

**WELL THEN. **

**Yeah okay so, A LOT of shit happened in this chapter huh? Yeah. Hopefully next chapter will be as good. Now, this is probably not going to go like most of you are predicting, as far as Oro's potion. Just keep that in mind… XD**

**KeikoPanda102**


	15. Story 2: Chapter 5

**Story 2: The Little Mershark**

**Chapter 5:**

Kisame was not sure what he expected. For Itachi to fall in his arms and give up his entire world to join Kisame in a life under the sea like Haku had for Zabuza?

Surely not.

Kisame just came to the realization that he wasn't doing himself any favors wallowing in self-pity all the while dreaming of Itachi in every other moment. He allowed himself to tolerate Orochimaru long enough to get what he needed, then he sped away, straight to the dock.

Well, stopping by Hidan and Kakuzu's for a moment to briskly apologize. Kakuzu understood, and though his outward remarks were cynical and discourteous, there was a softness to his jabs that told Kisame he was forgiven. When he made haste to leave their home for the shore, Kakuzu had a knowing glint to his piercing green eyes that revealed his understanding.

Doubts tried to invade Kisame's mind all the way to the dock, like algae that gathered if one remained still for too long. _Itachi had probably moved on. There was no guarantee he still came to the dock. He had probably long forgotten about Kisame. _He kept moving, kept his thoughts in motion to dispel the doubt and insecurity. He tried to focus on the things he _knew_.

Itachi's scent. Itachi's voice. Itachi's dark hair against his alabaster skin. The way Itachi would sometimes absentmindedly hum into the wind as it billowed about him on the dock.

Before he realized it, he was approaching the dock—a small, perfectly delicate shell on a string as fine as hair held gently in his hand.

Kisame breeched the surface a ways away from the shore, a habit he had acquired throughout his years of coming here. He peeked around a rock that was positioned with a perfect view of the dock, checking to see if someone was there before he ventured any closer.

What he saw made his tail freeze in the water.

Itachi was running—not walking or jogging—_running_ along the rocky shore towards the dock. Kisame thought momentarily about how quickly he had found the Red Fan, and wondered again if fate was on his side. That thought soon flew from his mind because it was clear to Kisame—Itachi was in distress.

He dove beneath the water, flicking his tail harder than he usually did to reach the water beneath the dock before Itachi could. It was habit, hiding from his human paramour. Though Itachi had seen him once before and even knew where he hid, Kisame hadn't been back to the dock in some time. He was unsure how the boy would react to him. When he poked his head up out of the water it was just in time to hear the boards overhead creak as Itachi's feet pounded on them, much heavier than his usual footsteps. Itachi didn't stop until he reached the very edge of the wood, where he appeared to crumple to his knees, hands digging into the last plank of the dock. Kisame could see his fingers from underneath, locked like talons over the side of the pier.

Kisame had no time to think or act before Itachi's voice rang out like a canon over the crash of the water and soft whisper of the wind,

"Are you here today?" he asked, pleading with more emotion than Kisame had ever heard lacing his voice. "I need you to be here, Shark. I need—need to talk. Please, come back and _listen to me!_"

"Itachi…?" Kisame began slowly, unable to resist a direct command from his love. Itachi seemed to freeze, and Kisame used this time to slide out tentatively from beneath the dock. He stayed close to one of the posts, but Itachi could see him, and Kisame could see Itachi. They locked eyes, black pouring into predator yellow, and they were _so close_, Kisame could have reached up and placed a hand over one of Itachi's, still clutching the end plank tighter than a barnacle.

"You're here," Itachi gasped, eyes wide and shoulders hunched. He didn't miss a beat. "Where have you been?"

Kisame was instantly struck by the sincere hurt that framed Itachi's words. Apparently this struck Itachi as well, as his face registered expressions of confusion and panic before soothing back to it's usual state of emotionless. Kisame's heart leapt in his chest, and he genuinely wondered how he had thought he was ever going to abandon this human. He was never going to try it again.

"Something's happened, hasn't it?" he asked, because the evidence of this was all there, from Itachi's frantic state to his distressed posture and the vice grip he still had on the end of the dock. When Kisame asked the question, that grip somehow tightened until Kisame was worried Itachi was hurting himself.

There was a moment of quiet where Itachi seemed to galvanize himself to the idea of speaking to Kisame instead of the flat ocean. When he was sure he could manage, he looked into Kisame's eyes and began.

"There was a… mutiny." He closed his eyes, biting his lip against the word. "Against my father."

"Who led it?" Kisame asked gently, trying to remember the voices and faces of the men aboard Fugaku's ship. Which of them was most likely to rise up against his unworthy captain? Itachi inhaled deeply, opened eyes as black as coal that stared fiercely, right into Kisame's soul.

"I did," Itachi replied calmly.

Kisame held his breath. That was a shock, but at the same time it wasn't. He'd heard Itachi complain about his father countless times. Sometimes Itachi thought that the only thing that kept Fugaku from abusing his mother and brother was the fact that his father knew Itachi would never allow him to do that. Perhaps Fugaku had finally gone too far and Itachi had decided to rise up against him.

"Shisui," he added, fingers relaxing from the wooden plank, "came to me last night. He told me that he and the crew were planning to mutiny against my father unless I did something about it."

He sat up straighter, eyes looking off into the distance. Kisame only noticed then that the sun was setting, burning red on the edge of the horizon. Itachi's voice was soft, careful, but Kisame knew better; Itachi was broken inside.

"I knew my father wouldn't listen if I tried to talk to him, so I tried to talk to the crew instead. They got angry, asked where my loyalties lied." He stopped, frowning just slightly when he continued, "My father found out about the mutiny. Instead of firing his men, he came to me. He told me that a captain does not stand for that kind of treatment. If I wanted to be captain someday, I would need to learn that.

"He knew that Shisui was the leader. He was going to kill him as an example to the others. I knew how it would end, and if my father followed through with his plans, the Uchiha trading company would cease to exist. My family, Sasuke, would lose everything. I couldn't let that happen."

He paused, glancing from the ocean to Kisame. Tilting his head to the side, he asked,

"How do you feel about me, Kisame? Will you save me?"

The mershark swallowed.

"What did you do, Itachi?" he asked, voice low and gravelly.

Itachi's eyes flashed as he looked away again.

"I beat them too it. I killed him before they could." He stopped, and Kisame was unsure if he would continue when he spoke again, "Only Shisui knows the real reason. Everyone else knows about an argument my father and I had earlier. They will think that was the reason. Kakashi will be the new captain, and Uchiha trading company will survive, along with the credibility of the Uchiha name. I will disappear, the murderous son who betrayed his own father. I will be the dark, dirty secret no one talks or thinks about. It was the only way."

Kisame's voice was soft when he spoke, now fully aware of the trials Itachi had been through that brought him where he was now. He knew perfectly well that Itachi had given up in order to save the person he cared most about.

"What about Sasuke?"

Itachi's carefully constructed expression seemed to cave in on itself for a moment, but it was gone soon enough.

"Sasuke has Naruto now. He will never forgive me. He will probably spend the rest of his life hating me, but he will be safe, and secure. He will forget about me, eventually."

"Are you… okay, with that?"

"It is for the best," Itachi murmured. "I never truly believed I was destined for the life of a sailor. Sometimes when I would sit on this dock for hours, not saying a single word, I would just stare out into the water, feeling like I was meant for… something else."

He looked down at Kisame, then glanced at the water. Slowly, he moved towards the edge of the dock. His feet dangled over, then his legs, and as Kisame watched with wide eyes, Itachi slid his body gracefully into the water, so close to him Kisame felt his body heat through the cool liquid separating them. Itachi reached up and untied his hair, letting it flow out around him, the tips dipping into the water and spreading like seaweed.

Kisame sucked in a long breath, Itachi's dark eyes on him. Carefully, timidly, Itachi reached out his arms, the white clothe of his shirt see-through and sticking to his wet skin. Kisame had never smelled Itachi's scent this closely before; when he had carried him in the storm he'd been too distracted to appreciate it; now it was all he could think about. Two delicate, pale hands slowly made their way up to his shoulders, resting on either side of his head.

Itachi's eyelashes fluttered as he lowered his lids, eyes hazy in a way Kisame only saw in his dreams.

"I'll ask again. Kisame, will you save me?"

"Yes," Kisame breathed out, every inch of his body on sensory overload. Yes, yes, of course he would save Itachi! He had come to the dock today willing to give up everything in order to be with him. He thought about the shell still held tight in his hand.

Orochimaru had known. As Kisame was leaving he'd said something. Something like the shell's power working both ways. Kisame was prepared to give up his tail and live a life by Itachi's side on land, but now Itachi was floating in the water beside him, already given up everything he had.

"I—I have something," he said, still unable to believe this was real, that Itachi was so close to him, _touching him_, his lips moist and cheeks flushed pink. He held up the shell and Itachi eyed it with sudden confusion.

"What is this?"

"Something that will save you," Kisame replied.

Itachi frowned, shaking his head. He appeared frantic, as though he'd done something wrong, made a grave mistake.

"No, no," he murmured and repeated, clutching at the coarse hair at the back of Kisame's neck. "Th—this isn't what I wanted. I—"

He leaned in suddenly, before Kisame could react, and pressed his lips against the cold blue of Kisame's. The shark was so taken by surprise he couldn't react before Itachi's warm, sweet tongue slid between lips, pressing gently against his tongue then bumping against his teeth. Just as Kisame was considering deepening the kiss, Itachi pressed his tongue far too hard against the sharp point of Kisame's dagger-like teeth.

Kisame tasted blood.

In a flash he pushed Itachi away, breathing heavily as he gripped the wooden pole in the water beside him. He stared at Itachi floating a few feet away like he was insane. Itachi carefully licked his bottom lip and Kisame saw red.

"Stop that! What's wrong with you, do you want to die?"

As soon as he said it, Kisame knew exactly what Itachi wanted. Itachi did want to die, and he wanted Kisame to be the one to do it. Some deep part of his chest felt cold and hard, and he ground his teeth together, refusing to succumb to the smell and taste of Itachi's blood.

"You said you would save me, Kisame," Itachi whispered against the sound of rough waves crashing underneath the dock.

"You want me to _eat you_, Itachi! How the _hell_ is that saving you?"

"I am meant to die," Itachi replied calmly. "I was meant to die in that storm, but you saved me, and now you must correct that mistake and take my life." He frowned, deadly serious and calm as the eye of a storm.

"Why do you act this way every time I offer myself to you?"

Kisame took a deep breath—a mistake, Itachi's blood was in the air—cringed, and replied thickly,

"I don't know. Why do I keep thinking I deserve to be happy?"

"Will killing me not make you happy?"

Kisame took his time to reply, glancing Itachi's way from the corner of his eye. He was older now, life had aged him beyond his years and though his body maintained it's perfect youth, his eyes could not hide the maturity of his soul. Kisame thought about the first time he laid eyes on Itachi, still young and innocent, full of life.

"I thought it might, the first time I saw you," Kisame said faintly. "I thought you were going to be my greatest meal, a legendary kill… and then you laughed."

Kisame shook his head weakly, chuckling without any real amusement.

"In that moment it didn't matter that you were the best thing I had ever smelled, you were special, and I wanted something different from you, I wanted—"

"To sleep with me," Itachi added softly.

"No," Kisame growled, loathing how Itachi saw him. Like he was just a monster who could only eat and fuck, that was all.

"Believe it or not, I do have more thoughts in this skull of mine besides food and sex. I wanted… I wanted to be there for you, whenever you needed me. I never wanted anything in return."

"Everyone wants something in return," Itachi said, eyes dark, like they weren't seeing at all.

Kisame shrugged. Maybe Itachi wouldn't believe him, but it was true. Kisame had never expected anything. He was going to watch Itachi grow up, live his life, and then die. And Kisame would die fulfilled because he was there for the one he loved unconditionally.

But he had failed, because Itachi wanted to die and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I don't understand you, Mershark," Itachi exclaimed. He sounded vaguely frustrated, almost angry. "You should want nothing from me but my flesh and blood, yet you appear to want everything _but_ that from me. Are you really a mershark, or some other beast with less predictable behaviors?"

At that, Kisame laughed.

"This coming from the human who _wants_ to be eaten. Why come to me? You want to die so badly just do it yourself."

Itachi's eyes shuttered and he stared into the moving water. Almost imperceptibly he bit his lip, cheeks tinting a pink flush. It set Kisame's heart ablaze with affection. He'd never before seen this side of Itachi—innocent and unsure. Itachi blinked twice and looked back up, affirming some thought in his head before replying brusquely,

"I suppose there's no point hiding anything now. I… thought you might have more than one kind of craving for my flesh. It seems I was… incorrect."

"The hell you were," Kisame growled in reply, his tail twitching back and forth like a riptide beneath the water. Itachi's eyes widened and he appraised Kisame carefully, working to stay afloat in the constantly moving tide.

"If so, why do you keep pushing me away?" the words have unexpected venom, and it takes Kisame by surprise. Why in all the seven seas would Itachi be upset in any capacity by the fact that Kisame had not, as of yet, decided to rip off his clothes and abuse his body in ways that Kisame had imagined many times when the sensuality of Itachi overwhelmed him.

"Why do _you_ not want me to?" Kisame finally asked, narrowing his gaze perceptively, nearly unaffected by the blood in the air and water. Itachi flushed again, averting his dark gaze.

"I thought… perhaps, that dying in your arms would be an exhilarating way to end. If I'm determined to die I may as well enjoy my last moments."

"Stop—stop saying you're going to die, that you want to die! You want me to save you but you won't even give me the chance."

Itachi huffed.

"I supposed 'save' wasn't the proper term. I meant it metaphorically more than literally. Is it possible you are unable to sleep with me?"

The question caught Kisame off guard. It seems out of place. Itachi's expression is curious and frustrated all at once. The cold of the water must have started seeping into his body because he was shivering the slightest bit and his skin paler than normal. It is his tone and expression as well as his physical state that force Kisame to react the way he does.

Kisame is fast; faster than Itachi thinks he is. He gasps slightly when one second, Kisame is feet away from him and the next, wrapping arms and tail around his limbs, holding him tight and whispering in his dainty ear.

"Oh, it's possible," he purrs, attempting to frighten, though he knows there is no point. "I could take you so fast you would be screaming before you even realized what was happening. I could drag you beneath the water and be inside you before you could think to take a last breath. I could make you cry from ecstasy and you would think it better than the wildest dream…"

Itachi's breathing was haggard, his chest pushing helplessly against Kisame's as his pulse raced, practically stirring the water.

"Do it, then," Itachi replied in a husky whisper, tilting his head so his lips touched Kisame's ear. Kisame couldn't believe how much he _wanted_ this human. He was sure that no creature, myth or not, had ever desired anything the way he desires the soft skin and supple body of the young man in his arms. A sound between a groan and a hiss left his lips and Itachi arched his body, exposing his long neck as he replied with an equally desperate sound.

"You're warm," he murmured breathlessly, squirming closer to Kisame, allowing the merman to keep him floating above the water. Kisame could feel Itachi's body through his soaked clothes, could feel everywhere; the places he was soft and cold, and the places that were hot and hard. He shivered and chuckled.

"I am half human, after all."

"I suppose you are…" Itachi replied, pressing kisses to his ear in earnest now. Kisame allowed him and reached below the water, one hand holding tight to Itachi's slim waist while the other ducked lower, grasping roughly Itachi's perfect ass. Itachi moaned, lower this time, the intensity of his kisses growing. He was mouthing the skin at Kisame's neck. It took Kisame a bit by surprise. He knew that his skin did not feel the same as a human's, but to Itachi it seemed not to matter. Kisame still didn't quite trust himself to touch his mouth to the skin of the human in his arms; he was still too unsure of Itachi's motives, though his mind was growing foggier with the human's every move.

"I won't kill you," he said suddenly, wondering (or maybe hoping) that this might make Itachi cease.

"I don't care," Itachi replied, rutting against Kisame's taut stomach.

"I love you," Kisame whispered, closing his eyes. At this, Itachi did pause. He sucked in a shuddering breath, wrapping his arms around Kisame's neck, burying his hands in Kisame's coarse, blue hair and forcing Kisame to look in his eyes.

"Then _make_ love to me."

"_Yes_," Kisame breathed, unable to resist any longer. Then he stopped, thinking about the possibilities, and frowned. "But not here."

He turned in the water, back against Itachi's chest.

"Hold on to me and I will take us to a safe place."

Itachi said nothing as he did as he was told, holding his hands across Kisame's chest. Kisame grabbed securely to one of Itachi's wrists for extra protection. He would not lose his human now.

Kisame swam for less than 30 minutes when he found the place he had been looking for—a ways up the coast and hidden beautifully by tall, dark cliffs, was a small cove. Kisame swam into it; careful to be sure no one else had thought to use it first. On the far end of the cove, away from the rougher ocean waters, was a sandy bank just big enough for two people to lie on comfortably.

"I wonder if this is the same cove where Asuma met his mermaid," Itachi muttered as he and Kisame floated calmly towards the small shore. He seemed to be asking himself, as he couldn't have known that Kisame had been eavesdropping on that particular conversation, but Kisame shrugged and replied anyway,

"It's possible. This place _is_ called _Mermaid's Cove_."

The water was getting more and more shallow the closer they got to the sandy bank. Kisame's tail was brushing the sand and rocks at the bottom of the pool and eventually he would be unable to swim any further. Itachi seemed to notice this, and slid off of Kisame's back and around to his front once the water was shallow enough for him to stand. He stood in front of Kisame, head just above the water, and stared into Kisame's eyes completely without fear. He took Kisame's hands and slowly walked backwards towards the shore, pulling Kisame along with him. Kisame could feel Itachi's racing pulse from where their hands were holding on to each other. Finally they reached shallows where Itachi could sit and the water only went up to his chest. Kisame lied next to him, dipping half of his face beneath the water a few times, breathing in through his nose to revitalize himself.

He stared up at Itachi while breathing calmly underwater. The sun was out and pouring into the cove to shine right on the bank. Kisame could understand why this was called _Mermaid's Cove_; he didn't know a single merperson who would miss out on an opportunity to sunbathe somewhere they wouldn't likely be seen. Itachi's hair was down and long, flowing across his back as he looked with closed eyes into the sunlight. Kisame thought he had never looked more beautiful.

He rose from the water and Itachi turned to him, face impassive. Kisame pushed himself up; sitting he was taller than Itachi, and if he kept his tail flicking smoothly along the sandy bottom he could keep himself balanced without his hands. He reached forward, cupping Itachi's face gently. Itachi leaned forward to meet him, hand grasping Kisame's wrist. They met, and it was their first perfect kiss. Itachi tilted his head, deepening the kiss as Kisame drove his other hand into the long black hair of his lover—something he had longed to do for as long as he could remember. It wasn't long before the little space between heir bodies was heated and tense once again.

Kisame slipped a hand from Itachi's throat into his waterlogged, loose shirt. He was gentle, moving his fingers over the sensitive skin of Itachi's chest. He knew his skin must feel strange, but once again Itachi seemed not to mind. He reveled in the touches Kisame granted him, bending forward to kiss him again when Kisame ripped open the front of the shirt and slid it sensually from Itachi's thin shoulders. Itachi shivered, but when Kisame faltered in response he shot him a look, clearly telling him to not stop. Kisame chuckled deep in his chest, pressing kisses—carefully, so not to bite and break the skin—to Itachi's chest. The shirt floated off and washed up on the shore, though neither of them noticed at all.

Kisame continued kissing down, further and further until his head was submerged. He could no longer hear Itachi's reactions, but he could feel how his chest expanded and contracted in response to every touch Kisame gave him. Kisame then continued even lower, pressing his mouth against the rim of Itachi's soaked pants. He felt Itachi's stomach clench and suddenly Itachi's hands were fisted in his hair.

Slowed by the water, Kisame moved his hands around to Itachi's back, slipping them inside the back of his pants and pulling them off. He wished his could hear the sounds Itachi made as he undressed him and touched the sensitive lower parts of his body. But Itachi's hands in his hair were enough. They tightened almost painfully when he stroked Itachi's length, pressing a chaste kiss to the dip between his thigh and pelvis. Kisame smirked, kissing the other side as well.

He felt Itachi's fingernails digging into his scalp and knew he had teased his love enough. Dipping his head fully between Itachi's legs, he swallowed the hot, aching member, and Itachi bucked his hips, toes curling against Kisame's sides. He sucked again, swirling his tongue, careful—_very_ careful—of his teeth. He worked away for another minute, Itachi's squirming only growing worse until he had to grasp his hips tightly and hold him still as he licked along the length once again. Itachi shuddered and Kisame felt his groin tighten, and he prepared to finish it off when suddenly he was being pulled back up into the cold air to face his heavily panting lover.

He barely had time to realize what had happened before Itachi was kissing him again, hard and possessive, both hands in Kisame's hair. He pulled away just a fraction of an inch, still desperately hard and full of desire, murmuring breathlessly into Kisame's mouth,

"You—yours. I want yours, Kisame, you—show me."

Kisame hesitated, but that pleading look in Itachi's eyes couldn't be denied for long.

"Merpeople… have the ability to hide our genitalia until it is needed," he explained calmly.

"It's needed now," Itachi asserted firmly, and Kisame saw stars. He swallowed and nodded. Itachi looked down at the water, but nothing could be seen because of all the sand their moving had kicked up. He slowly let his hands fall down Kisame's chest, then below the water, pausing only a fraction of a second when he felt the slight change in skin texture of Kisame's tail. Kisame let his own hand trail down and placed it on top of Itachi's, guiding it lower, farther down his tail until he could grasp the large, pulsating member jutting impressively from Kisame's body. Itachi took in a shaky breath, but his eyes were determined. He stroked up and down the length, and Kisame had never felt anything like it before.

Sure, other merfolk had done exactly what Itachi was doing, but it was the fact that _Itachi_ was the one doing it that set Kisame off. Itachi stroked him a few more times, then decided to surprise Kisame again and in a flash had moved one leg over Kisame's tail and firmly placed both hands on Kisame's chest. His eyes were blazing.

"I want you inside me," he said flatly, and Kisame had whiplash. Before he could resist (or think up a _reason_ to resist, now that he thought about it), Itachi grasped one of his hands and slid it around until it was cupping his ass. Kisame involuntarily squeezed and saw Itachi smirk.

"I could hurt you—_kill you._"

Itachi stared blankly at him.

"You won't. And even if you did, it's not as though I have anything to lose."

"You have your life," Kisame murmured; gently cupping Itachi's pale cheek in his large, blue hand.

"So sentimental for a murderous beast," Itachi countered coolly.

Kisame smiled and shrugged.

"What can I say? I live to destroy all your illusions."

"Then fuck me," he said, fingernails digging into the skin of Kisame's belly. "Destroy all of my illusions about this life. I'm asking you, Kisame."

Perhaps it was the way Itachi spoke his name, so calm and sure but with a burning desire bubbling underneath the surface, that made Kisame lose his defiant stance. Itachi was like the ocean. As seen from above he could be as ambivalent as the waters surface, but below he was teeming with energy, rippling with life and love and everything Kisame could ever dream of.

Slowly, he slid his hands back down to the soft skin at Itachi's ass, wasting no time as he found Itachi's entrance and circled a finger gently around the outside. Itachi gasped, clawing harder at Kisame's chest.

"It will hurt, water is not a very good lu—"

"Get on with it," the young human commanded through gritted teeth. Kisame noticed that he was denying himself pleasure from his own touch, his still aching manhood just barely poking from the water. Kisame wrapped one hand firmly around the length and received a pleasant moan in return. He used Itachi's distraction to press one finger as gently as he could inside. Itachi only moaned and pressed it deeper, wincing the slightest bit at the intrusion. Kisame knew better than to let that stop him. He added a second finger and moved, curling them the slightest bit and earning his own satisfaction from the sensation that must have coursed through Itachi when he did.

"_Kisame_!" Itachi gasped, and it was like nothing Kisame had ever heard before. Itachi's arms went weak and he nearly fell onto Kisame's chest, barely holding himself up as Kisame moved his fingers and stroked gently along his length.

Itachi's lips looked so supple, so moist and red and delicious that Kisame could not resist but to lean forward and capture them in his own. Blood was racing through him as his fingers continued to prepare Itachi. Itachi bit his lip into the kiss, drawing in a deep breath through Kisame's lungs, like he could suck the very life out of the elder mershark. His eyelids fluttered open, deep and dark and enchanting. Kisame deepened the kiss, always careful of his teeth, until Itachi pulled away slightly to mutter in a frantic rush,

"I'm going to come if you don't stop now, Kisame."

Kisame understood and removed his fingers, though he kept his grip on Itachi's member as he deftly lifted Itachi, caught his eye, and pressed his own tip to Itachi's spread entrance. He allowed Itachi the power to choose when to lower himself, and surrendered himself over to his love as he would the oceans currents.

Itachi didn't make a sound but Kisame couldn't contain his voice. He moaned as Itachi rode him, slow at first, then building and building as much as the friction from the water would allow; the sound of it splashing against their skin was mesmerizing, as was the feel of Itachi's warmth around him.

Itachi's body rolled against his, soft and hard all at once, and Kisame couldn't help but buck his hips up, meeting Itachi's hips with his own. He stopped stroking Itachi's length to grasp possessively at his thin waist, fingers digging in. He would _own_ Itachi, and then Itachi could never leave him, never be anywhere but with him.

"Faster," Itachi pleaded, dipping his head low to mouth at Kisame's neck. Kisame obliged, thrusting up more insistently. Itachi mewled and threw back his head. Kisame was growing nearer and nearer to the edge. A hunger pierced him suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, and he growled, pressing himself so hard into Itachi that the young human cried out in pain. Kisame found that he barely cared anymore. He thrust and thrust, Itachi riding him effortlessly from above.

He saw red and bared his teeth, aiming at the area of papery skin between Itachi's neck and collarbone. He inhaled Itachi's scent deeply, a scent that had dwelled in his dreams longer than he could even remember, and he bit down. Itachi let out a strangled cry as he came—Kisame tasted blood.

"_Yes!_" Itachi cried, giving himself over to Kisame's hunger, still wearily lifting his hips as Kisame felt the peak of his release coming and coming, and imagined the pleasure he would get from coming inside Itachi the moment he started devouring him. He groaned and thrust, tongue licking at the wounds his teeth had inflicted on his lover's pale flesh.

"No!" He shuddered suddenly, growling the word as his entire body shook with the force of his climax. He held Itachi close to him, blocking out the smell of his blood as he focused only on Itachi, on the human he loved—the human he refused to let die.

Itachi's body jerked in response to Kisame coming, a gasped cry escaping his lips. He let his head fall against Kisame's shoulder, his eyelids fluttering closed.

"I won't kill you," Kisame breathed softly into the damp strands of Itachi's raven hair. To his surprise, he felt Itachi bite his shoulder softly in reply. He chuckled, a great weight lifted from his shoulders as he allowed feelings of pleasure surge through him.

"I know," Itachi murmured. "What is that shell you have tied to your wrist?"

Kisame had almost forgotten about the Sea Snake's gift. He lifted his hand from where it had been resting underneath the water against Itachi's hip. He carefully slid himself out of Itachi and balanced the young human on his tail as he lifted the shell so both he and Itachi could see it. He tried to ignore the red spots from where his teeth had sunk into Itachi's flesh—a few of which were still slowly pouring bright red blood—and look solely into Itachi's eyes.

"This can save you," he explained carefully, "if you'll let yourself be saved."

"How?"

"You would become like me."

Itachi's gaze flickered briefly from Kisame to the shell, then back.

"A mershark?"

"Probably not a shark. That Haku kid didn't turn into a shark."

"Who is—"

"Doesn't matter. I think you would become a merman though. Close enough to being like me that we could… be together."

"We just were together," Itachi stated flatly.

"Yeah," Kisame chuckled, "but I can't stay out of the water like this forever. Itachi—you asked me to save you, and I'm offering this so that I could take you away from here."

"You had that before you knew about how I killed my father. Were you going to force me to change for you?"

Kisame shook his head and replied honestly,

"No. I would never do that to you. This shell, it works both ways. I was going to become human for you."

Itachi's eye did widen at this, just the smallest bit.

"Don't you have family that you would be—"

"No family. I was kicked out of my old home so long ago that I've forgotten why. I would be leaving behind my friends, but they would understand. I would still do it, if you wanted that. Anything to stay with you, Itachi. I only thought, maybe, this would be a good way out for you, if you want—"

Itachi cut him off with a kiss, a deep, deep kiss that reminded Kisame of the dark depths of the ocean, and he wondered if someday he and Itachi could go there together, and maybe then those depths wouldn't seem quite so dark.

"I never thought my life would turn out this way. I imaged many things, Kisame, but never this. I think this would be better than anything I had imagined. What do I do?"

It took Kisame a moment to recover from Itachi's impromptu confession, and another to realize that Itachi had _agreed_. He held the shell in shaking hands, breaking it open to reveal a tiny green ball. To Kisame it looked like a fish's egg and to Itachi like a pill. Both were unsure, but Itachi snatched it from Kisame before he could question it. He held it tight in his hand and closed his eyes.

"What will I look like?"

"I don't know," Kisame answered. He couldn't even begin to imagine, but he knew one thing: Itachi would be beautiful not matter what. Itachi nodded, a slight smile brightening his face as though he could read Kisame's mind. He closed his eyes again and placed the pill carefully on his tongue, then into his mouth. Kisame saw him swallow and pressed a deft kiss to his slender neck, then waited.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, then all of the sudden Itachi began to convulse, grasping at the throat Kisame had just kissed as though he couldn't breathe. As Kisame watched, gills appeared very faintly in Itachi's skin, and Kisame realized what he had to do.

He flicked his tail against the sandy bank, hurtling he and Itachi into deeper water. He continued swimming until they were out of the cove, then plunged the both of them underwater. At once, Itachi stopped holding onto his neck and took a deep breath, feeling it flow through his gills for the first time. The next second he began clawing at his legs as though they were burning. Kisame didn't know what to do but watch as his lover struggled through what looked like a terribly painful process.

"Burning!" Itachi said, and both of them were surprised by the clarity of his voice. But only for a moment, and then Itachi curled into a ball, holding his legs to his body.

"My body is on fire," he cried, and Kisame could do nothing but watch. He hoped the process didn't last very long; he wasn't sure how much more he could take, though he knew Itachi was much stronger than he looked. Just as he thought it, he saw a ripple of light hit Itachi's legs and where before was pale pink skin, now shone perfect black scales, the exact deep black of Itachi's eyes.

Those very eyes were shut tight, Itachi's mouth open in a silent scream as his legs fused together, the scales shimmering as they spread over him. At his feet they sprouted beautiful tailfins, so much more elegant than Kisame's. They looked sheer, like Kisame could almost see through them, and Itachi flicked them once, involuntarily, and they caught the light that shone through the water above head. Kisame felt blinded.

The water around Itachi suddenly swarmed with bubbles, nearly obscuring him from view. Kisame flicked his tail nervously, propelling himself around the bubbling cocoon with Itachi at its center. It seemed as though nothing moved for a moment but the bubbles that appeared from nowhere and then popped as more replaced them. Kisame stomach clenched painfully; he didn't like being unable to see Itachi. This went on for several minutes and all the while Kisame spent circling the bubbles, drawing nearer a few times, but then backing up quickly when he felt the insane increase in temperature of the water the closer to the bubbles he got. It was as though it was boiling. He couldn't imagine what Itachi was feeling inside that, but it worried him enough to regret even giving Itachi the choice to use the shell. He should have been the one to change. He could have become human and travelled with Itachi on land. He wouldn't have minded, and he was sure the pain of the transformation would have been easier on him. He was no stranger to pain.

Kisame ground his teeth, toying desperately with the thought of diving inside the bubbles. He only held back for fear of disturbing the transformation. Suddenly, without any warning, the bubbles exploded outward, crashing against Kisame with the force of a blisteringly hot wave. He held out his hands to cover his face until the explosion subsided, and when he lowered his arms saw the fully transformed Itachi Uchiha.

His tail was black as night and sparkled brighter than any star, all at the same time. There never seemed to be a moment when the light didn't catch against his scales and gleam like diamonds beneath the water. The black faded beautifully into the pale pink skin of his stomach and chest, thin and taut, but deceptively so. Itachi's long, raven hair, still untied and billowing about his shoulders, neck, and face, looked as if it were made of some yet undiscovered element that moved with inconsistent patterns with the water surrounding it.

Then, there was Itachi's face. Kisame knew that nothing about it had probably changed, but somehow when he saw it now beneath the water, it was different—and mesmerizing. Kisame imagined he could spend hours at a time just staring at it.

Itachi had his eyes closed. Kisame could faintly see the freshly grown gills moving on Itachi's slender neck, showing that at least Itachi was breathing. Kisame dared to swim in a bit closer. The water surrounding Itachi remained warm and Kisame guessed that if he were to touch Itachi, his skin would feel as though he'd been lying in the sun all afternoon.

"Itachi?" Kisame asked cautiously. He saw Itachi's brow twitch in reply, and then very slowly, Itachi opened his eyes.

Kisame was struck so hard it was like a blow right to the chest. Those dark, penetrating eyes he'd always known were gone, vanished along with Itachi's two slim legs. Now, when Itachi stared back at him, he fixed Kisame with a gaze of the deepest, most frightening red—blood red.

Again, Itachi left him feeling like _prey_.

"Itachi?" he murmured, drifted subtly closer as Itachi blinked his new eyes experimentally at the light coming from above them. Kisame wasn't sure why his eyes changed color but he couldn't deny it sort of turned him on when Itachi flashed them his way and fixed him with a sharp stare. Kisame was close enough now to see the odd pattern his pupil had been distorted into, almost like a pinwheel. Itachi blinked again and tilted his head.

"Do I not look as you expected?" Itachi asked, voice cautious but warm.

Kisame grinned, finally closing the distance between them sweeping one hand through the wild mane of Itachi's hair.

"I hadn't really had any expectations—though this would have blown them all away even if I had. Do your eyes feel any… different?"

"I can see perfectly clearly underwater, but I would have thought that was supposed to happen? Why? Do my eyes look different?" he frowned.

"Yes," Kisame breathed honestly. "But I don't think it's anything we need to worry about right now. The rest of you looks different as well, so it's probably nothing. How does it feel?"

Itachi gave an experimental flick of his tail, spinning his body around Kisame's playfully.

"I've always loved the water. This feels… natural." He paused, searching Kisame's face before quickly pressing their lips together, wrapping his tail tightly around Kisame's. "So does this," he added softly, pulling his fingers through Kisame's short hair. Kisame grinned, took Itachi by the hand, and pulled him deeper into the water, neither of them casting a second glance back towards the ocean's surface.

* * *

With Itachi by his side, Kisame was never happier. He introduced the new merman to Hidan and Kakuzu and even found them a place to settle nearby. Not long after, Zabuza and Haku arrived and decided to settle down as well. The mermaid capitol took notice of them after a while, even though they were on the outside of the city limits. But, they were content and didn't disturb anyone or cause any trouble, so the merpeople of the city made the decision to let them be.

Time passed strangely with Itachi for companionship. Before he realized it, _years _had passed since Itachi had made the decision to change his species. There were rumors from time to time, floating up from the deep pits of the sea snake's hideout. He wasn't done with Kisame or Itachi, but thus far he had stayed in his dark pit, and Kisame was content to leave him there.

One day seemingly out of nowhere, Itachi came to Kisame, fixed him with the now familiar deep red stare, and said simply,

"I would like to travel somewhere."

Kisame nodded slowly. He knew he would allow Itachi anything; he needn't even ask.

"Can I come with you?"

Itachi smiled a small, amused smile, and kissed Kisame lightly on the cheek.

"I want you to come with me, Kisame."

Kisame smiled and kissed Itachi back, taking one of his love's pale hands in his.

"We can leave today."

And they did. Kisame didn't ask where they were travelling to, nor did Itachi say, but it didn't take long to figure out.

"The dock," he said simply, following just behind Itachi as they swam through forests of seaweed very familiar to Kisame. He just barely saw Itachi nod his head in reply.

They continued on their way for a little while longer, but Kisame knew better than anyone that they were drawing close. He didn't ask Itachi why he wanted to return here, even when their heads breeched the water's surface and the beat-up old dock came into view. They remained at a distance, head bobbing just above the waves.

"I'm surprised they haven't destroyed it by now," Itachi said calmly. "The wood should be rotted and dangerous."

"Maybe they just forgot about it," Kisame offered gently. "Not many used to visit here but you—"

But just as he said it, he saw two figured walking along the beach, headed straight for the dock. One of them had hair of such a deep black that there was no way he could be anyone but Sasuke Uchiha. Kisame tensed, but Itachi seemed to be beyond that. He sunk back below the water, and Kisame nervously followed.

"I didn't know—" Itachi choked out the moment Kisame's head was below the waves.

Kisame nodded solemnly, hands firm on Itachi's shoulders.

"Do you want to go closer?"

Itachi looked him in the eyes and swallowed thickly. He turned his head to the surface and rose just enough to see above the water. Kisame followed in time to see Sasuke sitting down at the end of the dock, just like Itachi always used to, and a blond boy of about the same age sit down right beside him. Sasuke looked older in several ways, from his longer body to his eyes that seemed to have much less child in them than anytime Kisame had ever seen him before. The boy sitting beside him seemed worried.

Itachi ducked his head under the water and was already heading quickly towards the dock by the time Kisame sunk below the waves after him. They swam, silently, cautious as they slipped beneath the dock, settling themselves against the concrete poles used to keep the dock steady—the same place Kisame used to sit and listen to Itachi for hours on end. The water splashed rather violently against the underside of the dock; it was a windy day. Just over the sound of the water, Kisame and Itachi heard the voice of the young man who was not Sasuke.

"Teme?" He asked, sounding nervous. Kisame assumed it must be a nickname. "Why did you want to come here all of the sudden today?"

Sasuke hesitated and Kisame wondered if he would answer at all when he reluctantly replied,

"Today… is the day Ita—my brother, he—"

"Disappeared," the blond finished for him, and Kisame glanced at Itachi, knowing that he was thinking the same thing; the kid hadn't wanted Sasuke to be reminded that his brother killed their father.

"But why come here? What's special about this place?"

"My brother used to visit this place often. When I was little we would come together, but as he got older I knew this was the place he came to think about things. His solitary dock."

Ironically, it had never been all that solitary.

"Do you miss him?"

I felt Itachi's hand suddenly holding my shoulder tight, red eyes fixed on the crack in the wood that let him see the backs of his brother and the boy who was with him. Again, Kisame thought that Sasuke wouldn't reply—he seemed about as talkative as Itachi was—but then he murmured quietly, just above the crash of the waves.

"I never got to introduce him to you. I think he knew about you anyway, Naruto. All those times I was sneaking off to see you. Once, my father almost caught me, but I—Itachi, he covered for me. I could see that he knew. Sometimes I wonder… if that's why he did it. If that's why he killed Father. To protect me…" he trailed off. He seemed to be thinking.

"I guess I'll never know. If he's out there, though… I almost hope that he's happy. Even after everything he did, he was still my brother."

Kisame felt Itachi's fingers meld with his, and then Itachi was pulling him beneath the waves and away from the shore. He stopped a little ways out, nearly causing Kisame to crash into him. Before Kisame knew what was happening, Itachi's hands were holding the sides of his face and pressing a deep kiss to his lips. It was a haunting kiss, the kind which Itachi had only graced Kisame with maybe once before. When the merman pulled away he gasped; bubbles rose from his mouth to the water's surface high above.

Still holding tight to Kisame's face, tail wrapped lovingly around the awed mershark's, he whispered softly,

"I _am_ happy."

And Kisame, well, as soon as he heard that he didn't think he would ever be unhappy again.

And so, the once-human merman and lovelorn mershark lived happily ever after.

The end.

* * *

**Hi! Yes, aren't you surprised I actually finished this story? (To be honest, I kind of am). Sorry, sorry, sorry it took so long, but I stick by that all stories I start I WILL finish. I even plan on writing the rest of these fairytales... at some point. May not be soon, but it will happen. For now though, consider this collection on temporary hiatus until I work on some of my other fics, k? Thank you and please review to tell me if you liked the ending to The Little Mershark! XD**


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